Gambhir's fantastic knock in vain

Today’s match was a crucial one as it will decide whether India can secure a berth in the finals. Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. As Ian Chappell pointed out this pitch at SCG was a batsmen friendly one. In the Indian side Munaf Patel was replaced by Sreesanth. As usual, Gilchrist and Hayden opened the Australian innings.Gilly was looking in menacing form with three fantastic boundaries. I thought he was on his way to make the fastest hundred in this series but my hopes were altered when he was deceived by a good delivery from Sreesanth and a good one handed catch taken by Dhoni.The Australians were amassing runs at a very good run rate. They were 92/1 after 10 overs.By the way the Australians were batting I suppose they could have easily made a total of 350+.Hayden made a useful contribution of 54. The good partnership was building between Clarke and Ponting was broken when Clarke was dismissed for 31.The Australians have something to cheer about, their skipper is back to form and in style.Ponting was auctioned for a mere $400,000 in the IPL auction. He later said that he could have gone for a little more. He has been struggling in the series and today his match winning knock of 124 provide great quality entertainment. If the auction was held after today’s match Ponting could have fetched a good price. The aggressive Symonds struck six fours and two sixes and managed to score 59 from just 54 balls. With a couple of run-outs in the last over Australia managed to score 317 which is the highest total in the series. India’s run chase began badly when they lost four early wickets and at point of time they were 51/4..And I felt that the Indians were chasing a losing battle.Tendulkar was dismissed by an outstanding delivery from Lee. As per statistics Tendulkar has been Lee’s victim 9 times so far.Gambhir has been looking in a good form in the series. I guess its high time Yuvraj takes a break and concentrate on his batting skills. He was cheaply dismissed for 5 when India needed him the most.Gambhir was certainly the highlight of today’s match. The Indian scorecard was dominated by Gambhir(113) and Uthappa(51).I was surprised the way Uthappa batted today. This young man is promising and has a great future. Just look at the way he batted …amazing shots.Uthappa should be promoted up the batting order. His strike rate is just good enough for him to be in the top order. As I said in my previous article Dhoni completely lost his aggressive nature and his strike rate is very disappointing .The way he played he looked like as if he was chasing a total of 250.He needs to work on his batting else he may have to lead India only in the test matches. India was dismissed for 299 with 18 runs falling short of the target. With Australia assured a place in the finals it remains to be seen whether India can make it to the finals. India will face Sri Lanka in Hobart on Tuesday and it must win the match if they want to see themselves in the finals.