MSD and Yuvraj see India through

Fantastic innings from MS Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh took India through to the winning line in the Delhi ODI against Australia.

A big partnership made sure that there were no hiccups at the end of the innings. The two (coincidentally ranked No.1 and 2 in the ICC Rankings) played a wonderfully paced innings which took the match away from the Aussies.

The Aussies had packed their bowling so much that the batting depended on Ricky Ponting, Shane Watson and Michael Hussey heavily. That they responded well meant that the wickets were in hand when the slog overs started. But, the Indian bowlers (slow ones - especially the part-timers) pegged them back every time they threatened to explode.

Ravinder Jadeja looks much better than the main spin bowler of India - Harbhajan Singh. Probably, it is a better idea to rest Bhajji for some matches - that will give him time off to look at how he is bowling. Yuvraj Singh, especially this year, has been doing well as a bowler and this match was no different.

Sachin and Sehwag started off cautiously - in fact, Sachin was outscoring Viru most of the time. Finally, it was the magic of MSD and Yuvi that took India through.

The pitch was slow but that is probably good for the variety of ODI matches. This was a low-scoring match compared to the ones usually played on Indian soil. It gave both the batsmen and bowlers equal support.

The Indians adapted better to the conditions and the wicket, as Ponting admitted. Ponting was also trying to hint that the umpires were not that great (given that both of them were Indians). But, it was very clear that the performances of the players backed their rankings in international cricket - a truly champagne performance.