India face a major task to reach the tri series one-day finals after an 87-run loss to Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday. The Indians showed little fight in their chase after Australia’s 252 for nine and were skittled for 165 off 39.3 overs. The result means the Indians must beat Sri Lanka by a bonus point in Hobart on Tuesday to have any chance of making the finals. Australia are already through to the finals with their crushing bonus-point victory and have one more match to play before then against Sri Lanka in Melbourne on Friday. It was another miserable night for the Indians, who have showed little conviction during their tour to Australia, losing all four Tests, winning one Twenty20 match and going down in four of their seven ODIs with another match tied.
“Definitely not a good night. We have not performed to our potential in these ODIs,” said India skipper M.S. Dhoni. “It was an ideal opportunity for the youngsters. I am sure they have learned a lot. We need to bat well. Unfortunately we’ve lost all the tosses and kept batting in tougher conditions.”
Man-of-the-match David Warner topscored with 68 off 66 in Australia’s innings, while Matthew Wade (56 off 66) and David Hussey (54 off 64) also contributed half-centuries. India put in another woeful batting display and crashed to 104 for six in the 27th in a match where they always appeared to be struggling against the well-drilled Australians. Tailender Ravi Ashwin topscored with 26 off 37 balls, while Sachin Tendulkar (14), Virender Sehwag (5) and Dhoni (14) were all out cheaply. Tendulkar yet again failed to score his elusive 100th international century and has scored just 104 runs in six knocks in the series at an average of 17.33. Tendulkar was run out by a brilliant diving underarm throw down by Warner, but the Indian great complained that his run was blocked by the follow through of paceman Brett Lee.
Sehwag again showed little accountability and was caught and bowled by Ben Hilfenhaus, while Dhoni pottered around 49 balls before he was leg before wicket to Hilfenhaus.
