Dhoni Ka Dhamaka

As Cricket Australia rushed replacement

wicketkeeper Graham Manou to India, paceman

Mitchell Johnson conceded the overcrowded

schedule and heavy injury toll were affecting the

Australian team's focus.

A relentless merry-go-round of cricket that began

last September with a Test tour of India and will

continue after this trip with a full home summer and

tours to New Zealand, West Indies and England

has left the team dangerously over-stretched.

The latest injury, a broken finger to wicketkeeper

Tim Paine, forced a scramble to get Manou to

Delhi in time to prepare for Saturday's third limited

overs contest against India, even as the team

tries to make sense of Wednesday's horrid 99-run

defeat at Nagpur which levelled the series.

Manou follows allrounder Moises Henriques as a

mid-tour call-up to reinforce the battered squad.

Paine's loss followed ailments picked up by Brett

Lee (elbow), James Hopes (hamstring) and

Johnson (ankle), who battled manfully to get

himself fit in time to play game two.

Vice captain Michael Clarke (back), Nathan

Bracken (knee), Callum Ferguson (knee) and Brad

Haddin (finger) were all unable to make the tour

due to injury, and Johnson acknowledged the

string of injuries were a distraction.

"With a few little niggles around, the focuses do

tend to go towards that, but we've got to regroup,

sit in our team meetings and talk about what went

wrong and what we thought we did right out there

as well," Johnson said.

"We've got a few (two) days until the next game (in

Delhi), so the games are pretty tight and you've

just got to move on to the next one."

Asked about the amount of time off he and other

members of the side had received over the past

year, Johnson did not want to whinge, but still

acknowledged there was a serious imbalance.

"I'd like a bit more (downtime). Obviously the

international schedule is pretty intense at the

moment and any chance we get to have a little bit

of downtime or be home is great," Johnson said.

"It is a heavy schedule and look, playing for our

country I can't complain, we only play cricket for a

short time in our careers, so we've got to make the

most of the opportunities while we can.

"But I think you've also got to balance it out with

your life at home as well."

Johnson's figures of 3-75 from 10 overs were

hardly the return he would have been seeking in

Nagpur but he fared better than Ben Hilfenhaus

(1-83 from 10) and the strangely out of sorts

Shane Watson (0-47 from five), who again lacked

the control he had shown in earlier tournaments.

Indian captain MS Dhoni (124, 107 balls) played

one of his finest innings to batter the tourists and

help run up 7-354, his side's highest-ever score

against Australia, after first building a platform with

the pesky Gautam Gambhir (76).

The Australians were never in the chase, leaving

Johnson to hope for the return of Lee in Delhi to

add much-needed seasoning to the attack.

"Brett was disappointed to miss a game for

Australia but I'm sure he'll be trying to get back as

quickly as he can and get out there," Johnson

said.

"He's played a lot of one day cricket and that

experience definitely helps. We had a fairly young

bowling attack out there, so it's always good to

have someone like that in the side.

Cometry of tomorrow match

Click here for the winning moments of the match
Hope you have had loads of fun following our coverage for this series opener. This series promises to be a real humdinger, don't you dare miss out on a single bit of action. Until we meet next time for the second ODI, it's me - Shirshendu Roy alongwith my co-commentators, Mayank Wadhi and Srivathsa, wishing you good luck. Adios...
Mike Hussey, the Man of the Match: Not sure whether I made it look easy. It was a good pitch to bat on and the outfield is really quick. The conditions are generally good for batting in India, the crowd was superb, it was enjoyable.
Ponting: I'm quite happy with our performance and I congratulate India for their fighting efforts, unfortunately for them, they couldn't cross the line. I asked Siddle to stay calm, that worked.
Dhoni: We lost too many wickets in the batting powerplay, thanks to Bhajji and Praveen, we fought back and came this close. I think we can do a lot better on the bowling front and the batsmen should contribute more too. There will be ups and downs in a 7 match ODI series, that is what you expect when the top two teams are playing at this level.
Cut-throat competition in the field comes to an end finally. The Australians have prevailed in this closely fought battle. The Indians had lost all their hopes when they were seven down and it took some mind-boggling batting from Harbhajan Singh and Praveen Kumar to bring India to sniffing distance from victory. 84 runs stand between the duo left Australia gasping for breath and it was never over and finally the last delivery decided the fate of this contest. Well, friends, this indeed has been a rivetting contest and if these are signs to go by, we are all in for a fascinating ODI series. The start has been eventful, let's see how the rest goes. Till you wait for the presentation to begin, keep racking your brains to find out what the turning point was? Praveen Kumar missing out on a boundary ball off the very first delivery of the last over or was it Harbhajan Singh's dismissal? Keep thinking!
Australia win by 4 runs
The all new HCL ME laptops - 7 hrs battery backup, 500 GB HDD, lightweight
49.6
Siddle to Nehra, 1 run, driven hard down the ground for a single only, the Australians prevail despite the scare given by Harbhajan Singh and Praveen Kumar!
Six off the last ball, can Nehra do it for India?
49.5
Siddle to Praveen Kumar, 1 run, Siddle fires in the yorker and Praveen Kumar clips it to mid wicket for a single, all eyes on Nehra now!
49.4
Siddle to Praveen Kumar, no run, very full and driven hard, good stop by Siddle, Yuvi puts his hands up on the head, this is getting all the more tighter
49.3
Siddle to Nehra, 1 run, right up there in the blockhole, Nehra gets an inside edge onto the pads, enough for a single, importantly for India, Praveen Kumar comes on strike now
Ashish Nehra comes in now, Bhajji has a word with him
Siddle to Harbhajan, leg byes, no run, out Bowled!! The turbanator has left without completing his job, Siddle kept it straight and on the stumps, Harbhajan swings across the line to only see his off stump shattered, Harbhajan is gone now, the Indian balcony is disappointed. Harbhajan b Siddle 49(31) [4s-4 6s-3]
Get yourself featured on the cover page of AllSports magazine!
49.2
Siddle to Harbhajan, THATS OUT!! Bowled!!

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Noodlles:lol...poor Divya
moo:heheheh
Rajni2703:Kakaeshwar Ji :-)
SakatHotMaga:is tensach from the same state as General Admiral Air Marshal Lalit Modi ji?
LordOfDCric:@vicky ji can :) :)
Noodlles:Sane your 'working day' coming to an end??? 9 to 5.30 chatting?? :)
moo:3 mins it was
SakatHotMaga:lol
saneindian:TA nagpur ground hasnt hosted an ODI yet :) wonder on what basis you are saying this is a batting wicket or blah blah :)
Rajni2703:TA ..howcome u stopped ur Anti MSD posts ??
tensach:divya removed, hope HE now understands moderator performance
vicky64:LoDC: uttappa a cab driver?
moo:TA tell harby and pk that
SakatHotMaga:abe saale matlab pyar se saaleshwar ji.
saneindian:lol mr double L you have been caught..stop impersonating someone
Noodlles:Sane because of 18 hour chatting you seem to have thick specks........I think tensach as well as I explained why 0 becomes O or l becomes LL
divya_:mo pls dont talk to me you are sick person
moo:rajni when raw pace is here why do you hide? why is it always me that has to boo him off
vicky64:divya_: can you please move on and stop this crap?
techAnalyst:more batting friendly....more it favours AUS's.. as they have more powerhitters...

Afrid's vue

slamabad, Oct.24 (ANI): Flamboyant Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi has made it clear that he has no intention of playing Test cricket until the 2011 World Cup and would be concentrating solely on the shorter versions of the game.

Afridi told PakPassion.net that since the selectors did not consider him good enough for the five-day game, he decided to focus only on T20 and 50 over cricket, which suited his style more.

“I was keen in the past to play test cricket and my record in test cricket is there for everyone to see. I have previously made myself available to the selectors for test matches, but wasn’t given a chance, so I have decided to focus solely on 20 over and 50 over cricket until at least the World Cup in 2011,” Afridi said.

Afridi said with so much cricket being played nowadays, it was important to keep himself free and fresh for the shorter versions of the game.

“There is so much cricket being played these days and the international schedule is so hectic, that I feel that its in my best interests to keep fresh for the shorter versions of the game, especially with both World Cup competitions to be played in the next two years,” said the captain of Pakistan’s T20 squad.

Afridi, who averages over 37 with the bat and under 35 with the ball in Test cricket said he is training hard for the forthcoming one-day series against New Zealand, starting November 3 in Abu Dhabi.

T20 Cricket it is a life job for the Ranji Crickter's

Jay Hoo T20Cricket

T20 Cricket is very popular at that time