India's death-bowling problems are well documented, and Australia's batsmen seemed to know all about them, timing their late assault in Mohali to perfection to complete an improbable chase. James Faulkner, India's wrecker-in-chief on the night, said after the game he knew better than to go after offspinner R Ashwin, while Adam Voges, Australia's top scorer, said Faulkner had specifically looked to get after Ishant Sharma in an over that changed the game.
"I didn't feel I could get Ashwin over to the long boundary, with his carom balls. So I thought if I could just get seven or eight off him and target the other end … that was our only chance of winning, to tell you the truth," Faulkner said after his team chased down 304, needing 44 off the final three overs. Ashwin had bowled the 47th over and the pair of Voges and Faulkner took eight off it, with just one boundary. The next over, Ishant was thrown the ball and, according to Voges, Faulkner said: "This is it, I am going after this."
And go he did, slamming four sixes, a four and running a two to take 30 off Ishant and bring the equation down to a very manageable 14 off 12. Ashwin bowled the following over too, and again Faulkner and Voges sensibly knocked him around for five, before easing to victory off seamer Vinay Kumar.
While Faulkner's innings was "extraordinary", as his captain George Bailey termed it, Ishant did provide him with the opportunities to hit out. The pace bowler pitched short repeatedly, bowled length and delivered only one full ball, and even that delivery allowed Faulkner the room to have a swing.
India captain MS Dhoni, who had hit the third-highest score for a No. 6 batsman to lift his wobbling side to above 300, admitted that the bowling is a headache that is getting worse for the team.
"I think the last few overs were disappointing, it is an area of concern and it is getting worse. There was a bit of dew but not like in the last game, the individuals will have to step up, you have to back your strength," Dhoni said. "You don't need to spoonfeed bowlers at the international level."
Bailey said keeping wickets in hand was where his team scored over India. "It was a fantastic partnership to finish it off. It was extraordinary hitting from Jamie, as good as I've seen. It was great that he had Adam at the other end who held the innings together nicely.
"The thing we kept talking about was trying to have wickets in hand. That was where we felt we might have the advantage over India. We kept taking wickets through the Indian innings to put them under the pump."
India had lost their fourth wicket by 13th over, when Dhoni walked in and proceeded to construct another one of his special ODI innings. After beginning slowly and building patiently, Dhoni teed off to finish on 139 not out off 121. He had offered a chance off Shane Watson in the penultimate over of the innings, but Bailey grassed what should have been a straightforward catch in the covers. Dhoni added another 34 runs to his score. Bailey had a laugh about that drop after the game: "If I could learn to catch, we'd possibly be chasing 20 or 30 lesser off MS' role."
Faulkner was one of the bowlers taken apart by Dhoni after that life, but it was Faulkner who ensured his team could laugh about that gaffe at the end of the day.
Faulkner launches premeditated assault on Ishant
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Faulkner launches premeditated assault on Ishant
