ODI Series - 3rd Final: Australia v Sri Lanka, Adelaide

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Commonwealth Bank Series
Australia - India - Sri Lanka

3rd Final: March 8, Adelaide Oval
Start time: 1350 CST, 0950 IST, 0320 GMT

CBS Table - Final Standings: 04/03/12


Australia:
1 Matthew Wade†, 2 David Warner, 3 Shane Watson*, 4 Michael Hussey, 5 David Hussey, 6 Peter Forrest
7 Daniel Christian, 8 Brett Lee, 9 Clint McKay, 10 Xavier Doherty, 11 Nathan Lyon.

Sri Lanka:
1 Mahela Jayawardene*, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara†, 4 Dinesh Chandimal, 5 Lahiru Thirimanne, 6 Upul Tharanga,
7 Chamara Kapugedera, 8 Farveez Maharoof, 9 Nuwan Kulasekara, 10 Lasith Malinga, 11 Rangana Herath.

Sri Lanka 236 for 9 (Chandimal 81, Jayawardene 43, Vinay 3-46, Ashwin 2-30) tied with India 236 for 9 (Gambhir 91, Dhoni 58*, Thisara 2-45)


Dhoni needed a 4 off the last ball and could only manage 3.

From Cricinfo

It wasn't just the players that erred on the tense night. Umpire Nigel Long's miscounting meant Malinga only bowled five balls in the 30th over. India will believe they would have got the winning run off the ball that was missed. Sri Lanka will believe they could have got the tenth Indian wicket off it. How perfect then, that we will never know how it could have ended

Oops

So a draw... Thats pretty impressive for Sri Lanka

Personally I blame Dhoni for India's batting woes. It's clear to see that Raina can't play on bouncy pitches, and all the more bizarre that they are rotating Shewag/Tendulkar/Gambhir.

It's fair enough that Rohit Sharma deserves a run in the side, his form has been pretty good in recent times.

Dhoni should also bat ahead of Raina, if he's so keen on playing him. Dhoni averages 50, so it means he can play a bit!

I'd ditch Raina ASAP, if I was Dhoni. Shewag's a little a bit too good to be left on the benches.

Demon Racer wrote:Personally I blame Dhoni for India's batting woes. It's clear to see that Raina can't play on bouncy pitches, and all the more bizarre that they are rotating Shewag/Tendulkar/Gambhir.

It's fair enough that Rohit Sharma deserves a run in the side, his form has been pretty good in recent times.

Dhoni should also bat ahead of Raina, if he's so keen on playing him. Dhoni averages 50, so it means he can play a bit!

I'd ditch Raina ASAP, if I was Dhoni. Shewag's a little a bit too good to be left on the benches.

Raina is an awesome one-day cricketer in my opinion and a big asset on any surface - people make the mistake of seeing him as a top-order player when in reality he is a hitter. All of the 8 batters used in this series deserve their places though so I guess they feel rotation is necessary - I think it would have been better to send Gambhir and Sehwag back to India for a week/10 days or so in turn for rest rather than change it every match though. I'd imagine Rohit will have to be left out when the rotation stops (probably for the finals) though. It just goes to show the depth India have with, for various reasons, Rahane, Yuvraj and Yusuf Pathan out of the team.

Shelsey93 wrote:

Demon Racer wrote:Personally I blame Dhoni for India's batting woes. It's clear to see that Raina can't play on bouncy pitches, and all the more bizarre that they are rotating Shewag/Tendulkar/Gambhir.

It's fair enough that Rohit Sharma deserves a run in the side, his form has been pretty good in recent times.

Dhoni should also bat ahead of Raina, if he's so keen on playing him. Dhoni averages 50, so it means he can play a bit!

I'd ditch Raina ASAP, if I was Dhoni. Shewag's a little a bit too good to be left on the benches.

Raina is an awesome one-day cricketer in my opinion and a big asset on any surface - people make the mistake of seeing him as a top-order player when in reality he is a hitter. All of the 8 batters used in this series deserve their places though so I guess they feel rotation is necessary - I think it would have been better to send Gambhir and Sehwag back to India for a week/10 days or so in turn for rest rather than change it every match though. I'd imagine Rohit will have to be left out when the rotation stops (probably for the finals) though. It just goes to show the depth India have with, for various reasons, Rahane, Yuvraj and Yusuf Pathan out of the team.

India confirmed that Rohit will play every match, so I'd guess Shewag would miss the finals.

I think Raina's a decent package in limited overs cricket. He can whack the ball, bowl a few overs and a pretty awesome fielder. In terms of batting talent he's no way near as good as Rohit.

To me India are really missing Yuvraj. Jadeja is decent, but he doesn't have Yuvraj's power and more importantly, Yuvraj and Dhoni play well together.

Demon Racer wrote:

Shelsey93 wrote:

Demon Racer wrote:Personally I blame Dhoni for India's batting woes. It's clear to see that Raina can't play on bouncy pitches, and all the more bizarre that they are rotating Shewag/Tendulkar/Gambhir.

It's fair enough that Rohit Sharma deserves a run in the side, his form has been pretty good in recent times.

Dhoni should also bat ahead of Raina, if he's so keen on playing him. Dhoni averages 50, so it means he can play a bit!

I'd ditch Raina ASAP, if I was Dhoni. Shewag's a little a bit too good to be left on the benches.

Raina is an awesome one-day cricketer in my opinion and a big asset on any surface - people make the mistake of seeing him as a top-order player when in reality he is a hitter. All of the 8 batters used in this series deserve their places though so I guess they feel rotation is necessary - I think it would have been better to send Gambhir and Sehwag back to India for a week/10 days or so in turn for rest rather than change it every match though. I'd imagine Rohit will have to be left out when the rotation stops (probably for the finals) though. It just goes to show the depth India have with, for various reasons, Rahane, Yuvraj and Yusuf Pathan out of the team.

India confirmed that Rohit will play every match, so I'd guess Shewag would miss the finals.

I think Raina's a decent package in limited overs cricket. He can whack the ball, bowl a few overs and a pretty awesome fielder. In terms of batting talent he's no way near as good as Rohit.

To me India are really missing Yuvraj. Jadeja is decent, but he doesn't have Yuvraj's power and more importantly, Yuvraj and Dhoni play well together.

I think, given time, Jadeja will be a top all-rounder in both forms of the game.

Vinay kumar has been impressive this series, suprised me to be honest.

Big wicket for Broad

It was very clever from him as he saw Farhat out of his crease and not paying attention. Clever run out

cricketfan90 wrote:Vinay kumar has been impressive this series, suprised me to be honest.

Me to CF90, he's been pretty sharp as well around 140kph! He does seem a better ODI bowler than Test bowler. Seems to have a good change of pace as well.

A great win for Sri Lanka at the SCG on Friday.

It was unfortunate that the match was interrupted by rain. Weird, because there was no rain where I was (about 10km away) but you could see the black/grey storm clouds rolling in from the south west on Friday afternoon.

Anyway, congrats to SL on their comprehensive victory.

Today Australia play India at the 'Gabba.

No Sehwag for India and Australia must find a way to put a decent score on the board.

They have been performing below par of late and I can't help but think too much fiddling around has gone on with the lineup. We need a settled XI and to make a minimal amount of changes now that Clarke is out. I don't think George Bailey is the answer and the pressure will be on Forrest again to perform.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/commonwealth-bank-series-2012/content/story/554100.html

Australia 211/3 after 42 overs

Mike Hussey 57(48) and Forrest 46(65)

MEK Hussey

Innnings 142
Runs 5000
Ave 51.02
S/R 88.11

Mike Hussey and now Peter Forrest holing out in the deep.

Dave Hussey and Dan Christian at the crease.

Australia 225/3 after 44 overs.

Not a bad total there breaker. Will be a difficult test for the Indian batsmen

288/5 after 50. Yeah, not bad Billy. A good test for India.

They've got some good hitters like Dhoni and guys like Gambhir and Kohli are in sound form.

First ball 4 for Gambhir

They do have some hitters breaker but i cant see them getting this unless they get of to a very fast start.

288 should be too many , surely? Australia made the most of those last ten overs, did they not ...

Ponting however did nothing to deflect the mounting pressure on him. Perhaps time to call time on ODIs if he wishes to extend his Test career?

(That ought to guarantee him a hundred in the next match )

Now that Gambhir has gone, its already getting difficult for India.

I think that Ponting has played reasonably well to be honest. He may not have so much to offer the ODI side anymore but is there a better player to replace him?

Another wicket for Lee who has 2/3. Rohit Sharma gone.

India 16/3 after 5.5 overs.

All over for India, no way back from here

No reverse cursin' Billy.............. please!!!

Have to breaker, got to try and make a game of this

Kohli out now as well. Seriously no comeback here. India will be lucky to make 200.

India 45/4 after 14 overs.

With a RRR of 7 an over and only 6 wickets in hand. India have lost this.

Raina gone now and with him any hope for India to get over 200.

Jadeja gone now 114/6

All over. Australia wins by 110 runs.

Crunching, simply crunching win for the Aussies

What was good about the win though is that Sri Lanka are still in it

Ponting axed, then. Let us hope this isn't the end of his career at all levels. His recent Test form has been very encouraging, and reinforced my belief that he has plenty of runs left in him. It'd be nice to see him over in England for the 2013 Ashes.

What Fists? Has Ponting been axed?

Ponting dropped for Watson from the squad, which to be honest is fair enough as he's the player least contributing at the moment. He seems to have gotten his test game back by gutsing it out at the start, which of course you can't really do in ODIs. A shame because his fielding is still top draw, but with Warner, Wade, both Husseys, Forrest and Christian all contributing, there was a tough choice to be made. Also, Ponting is unlikely to still be around at the next WC, which may have played a part in the thinking.

He is said to be seriously considering his future; I really hope this isn't the end for him in Tests, too.

I'd imagine Ricky will retire from ODIs after this. Test wise he has years left in him.

Form is temporary, class is permanent as the saying goes.

I'd be surprised if he were to quit the scene completely , having worked so hard to get back into form in the Tests , and having such an excellent series against India.

I suggested yesterday he might abandon the ODI format , and with his hand now rather forced I would imagine that is what he will do.

It is possible of course he'll see it as a good time to get out altogether , but it would be rather out of character for him. Don't think he'd want to go out on such a flat note.

The end of an amazing ODI career for Punter.

I'm still surprised how it was all done suddenly yesterday. Even though the signs were imminent; I half expected him to go on for a bit longer... but what also surprised me a little was the boldness of the announcement from CA.

This means that the bar has been set and all current players need to keep performing consistently or else... !

As for Tests - I think he will be desperate to survive until the next Ashes Tour in 2013 but that is still a long way off.
There was a sound bite this afternoon with Ricky saying exactly that. It was sad to hear this plea but made worse to hear Ricky 'forced' into actually saying it... thereby acknowledging the precarious situation he is in to keep his spot until mid 2013.

Listening to him... he is still so driven and sounds quite resistant to the idea that there is a better replacement for him at Test level.

It will be a shame if the Test axe drops before he makes his own announcement on retirement (which I don't think will ever happen) but surely he must be on tenter hooks now and will have to give a dominant batting display once again when the side tours the West Indies next month.

The SA Redbacks will meet the Tassie Tigers in the Ryobi One Day Cup Final.

Here's how the season finished.

	Played	Won	Lost	Points	NRR
SA Redbacks	8	6	2	27	+0.47
Tasmania Tigers	8	6	2	26	+0.21
NSW Blues	8	4	4	17	+0.17
Qld Bulls	8	4	4	17	+0.01
Vic Bushrangers	8	3	5	13	-0.14
WA Warriors	8	1	7	4	-0.60

Lb, aren't there a few Saffers playing in this comp. How are the doing?

There might be a few playing in WA? I'm not sure mate. Names don't immediately spring to mind.

To be honest, I hardly follow this comp. Generally, they don't attract crowds of much size at all... the grounds always look empty and lack atmosphere. Perfect for taking still photography!

There's too much other stuff going on with the tests, etc. The standard is pretty good though - it's fairly competitive and it's good to see states like SA and Tasmania doing well consistently in all forms of the game from T20, ODI. There's quite a few Tassie Test players who already have or who will be coming to fruition in the next phase of the re-building process of the national side.

Getting the balance right.... or shifting towards a Tasmanian dependency perhaps?

As a NSWer, I have a lot of faith in these players from all over the country. It takes the emphasis off the east coast (NSW, Vic, WA, Qld traditionally dominated the national sides). Now all of our teams are more mixed with more representation from Tasmania and SA. I'm sure there's Saffers and players with SA ties in the mix somewhere... all over.

Interesting looking at the Sheffield Shield Table.

Sheffield Shield Table

WA on top followed by Queensland with Tassie nipping at their heels.

Then Victoria, NSW and SA... last.

It's almost the opposite of the OD Cup table.

In Sheffield Shield (1892/3-2011)

NSW 45
Vic 27
WA 15... 16?
SA 14
Qld 6... 7?
Tas 1

In One Day Comps (1969/70-2011)

WA 11
NSW 9
Qld 8
Vic 5
NZ 3
SA 2... 3?
Tas 2... 3?

whats happened to robbie Uthappa?

he's a much better batsman than raina!

No idea CF. I thought he was more of a T20 player?

He looked promising a few years back then had a bit of a slump but I don't know what's happened since.
Maybe he trod on some BCCI big-wig's toes?

Am i right in thinking that India are now out?

eirebilly wrote:Am i right in thinking that India are now out?

Not quite.

They need win well twice, and have the Aussies lose twice (picking up a bonus point win would help massively, as their NRR is rubbish)

Oh ok, thanks kiwi. i thought that they all ended on 6 matchest but they have to face eachother 4 times each?

eirebilly wrote:Oh ok, thanks kiwi. i thought that they all ended on 6 matchest but they have to face eachother 4 times each?

Yep. They've all played 6 already. I think last year or the year before the series was shortened a bit, but the've gone back up to the full noise this year.

Teams Mat Won Lost Tied N/R Pts Net RR For Against
Sri Lanka 6 3 2 1 0 15 +0.426 1419/273.3 1370/287.4
Australia 6 3 3 0 0 14 +0.318 1435/273.0 1260/255.1
India 6 2 3 1 0 10 -0.733 1307/278.2 1531/282.0

Actually, with 4 points for a win (or 5 with a bonus point win) India are very much still in it. For some reason I had 2 points for a win in my head.