Important to keep scoreboard ticking

The strong bottom hand that gets Mahendra Singh Dhoni into trouble in Test matches came to the Indian team's rescue when the Indian skipper, using that right hand, hit one of the biggest sixes seen at the Adelaide Oval to get India within a boundary of winning the game.

Clint McKay had bowled a clever delivery which was wide of the off stump, and is extremely difficult to hit when a batsman is looking for the big shot. But the only mistake he made was that it was a good length ball and that was all that the Indian captain needed.

‘Don't bowl length please' is what coaches and skippers tell their bowlers in the final overs when batsmen are looking to get maximum runs, but in a pressure situation, even the best of bowlers can crumble and that is what happened to McKay. His next ball was a full toss above the waist and though it was caught in the deep by Warner, Dhoni knew that it was going to be called a no-ball and so kept running and ensured that he was back on strike again.

Energetic running

The Indian captain looked out of sorts at the start of his innings as if he was a bit under the weather. In the hot Adelaide weather, he was wearing a sweater that suggested that he might have caught a bug or something but that did not stop his energetic running between the wickets and when the big shot was needed, he produced it with ease and once again showed why he is one of the finest finishers in this format of the game.

Earlier, Gautam Gambhir had played with a rare fluency on this tour and almost got a century. It was his partnerships with first Sehwag, and then with Kohli and Rohit Sharma that kept India in the hunt. He was positive and looked to play in front of the wicket rather than the attempted dab to third man which has dismissed him in Tests as well as one-dayers. Playing with a firmer straighter bat paid dividends as he found the gaps on both sides of the wicket.

Kohli and Sharma would be disappointed that they did not carry on after getting starts and Raina too departed when the asking rate had climbed up, though he had a good partnership with Dhoni and they pushed the Aussie fielders with some well-judged singles and twos.

The importance of the single cannot be over-emphasised as it not only ensures that there is no dot ball but it also rotates the strike and makes the batsman feel that he is not stagnant at the crease. With T20 coming in, most Indian batsmen are looking to go for the boundary shots and getting out.

One has to also remember that Australian grounds are big ones even though in recent times the boundaries have been brought in considerably to encourage more sixes and fours.

Big grounds

So hitting the aerial shot carries a huge risk and should be attempted only if absolutely necessary, as Dhoni showed. Otherwise the batsman has to be ready to burn his lungs with quick running between the wickets and those same big grounds do provide the opportunity to run singles and twos.

India also did well in restricting the Australians when they threatened to get near 300 runs, especially when the David Hussey, Peter Forrest partnership was flourishing. Forrest was very impressive in his debut effort and hit some big sixes too. Umesh Yadav bowled well to ensure the Australians were kept in check. It was a fine performance and after their first win over Australia, India will now go into the remainder of the matches in the belief that they can beat anybody.

— Professional Management Group