A Good Chase......., But sad!

It is really sad that the Indian team lost to the Aussies at Nagpur on Sunday in spite of chasing a high target of 317 runs really well. They not only lost the match, but also the Future Cup Series in their home ground.The Kangaroos win the series with a 4-1 lead after Sunday's match.

Symonds 's unbeaten 107 of 88 balls propelled the scores of the Australian team from 129 for 4 to a real cool target of 317 after Ricky Pointing electing to bat.The Indian bowlers had lost their plots, when the last 10 overs fetched a 102 runs for the Australians.

The Sachin Ganguly partnership fetched a massive 142 runs and laid a solid platform for the Indians to win.Sachin blasted the balls Brett Lee and the crowd was all in cheers and roars! The turning point came, when Glichrist had the bails off and Sachin had to walk back.Ganguly put up a good show. Dhoni's and Uttahpa's effort to chase the score is noteworthy.They gathered 72 runs in just 46 balls. Attempting to hit big ones , both the players failed. Symonds's maiden over in the 49th over was amazing.

India fell short of just 18 runs and suffered a blowing defeat in the match as well as the series.

Scores:

Australia: A Gilchrist c Uthappa b Pathan 51, M. Clarke c Dhoni b Zaheer 0, R. Ponting c Dravid b Harbhajan 49, B. Hodge c Dravid b Kartik 20, A. Symonds (not out) 107, B. Haddin c Tendulkar b Sreesanth 25, J. Hopes c Dravid b Zaheer 39, B. Lee (run out) 17, M. Johnson (run out) 1, Extras (lb-3, nb-1, w-4): 8; Total (for eight wkts. in 50 overs): 317.

Fall of wickets: 1-2 (Clarke), 2-98 (Ponting), 3-102 (Gilchrist), 4-129 (Hodge), 5-204 (Haddin), 6-294 (Hopes), 7-315 (Lee), 8-317 (Johnson).

India bowling: Zaheer 10-0-62-2, Sreesanth 8-0-64-1, Pathan 9-0-60-1, Harbhajan 8-0-56-1, Kartik 9-1-37-1, Yuvraj 1-0-15-0, Tendulkar 5-0-20-0.

India: S. Ganguly c Hodge b Hogg 86, S. Tendulkar st. Gilchrist b Hopes 72, I. Pathan c Clarke b Hogg 29, R. Dravid c Hodge b Hogg 7, Yuvraj lbw b Hogg 6, M.S. Dhoni c Ponting b Johnson 26, R. Uthappa c Hopes b Johnson 44, Harbhajan (not out) 6, Zaheer (not out) 3, Extras (b-4, lb-8, w-7, nb-1): 20; Total (seven wkts., 50 overs): 299.

Fall of wickets: 1-140 (Tendulkar), 2-189 (Pathan), 3-203 (Ganguly), 4-213 (Yuvraj), 5-218 (Dravid), 6-290 (Uthappa), 7-290 (Dhoni).

Australia bowling: Lee 7-0-50-0, Johnson 9-1-39-2, Bracken 8-0-54-0, Hopes 4-0-30-1, Symonds 10-0-39-0, Hogg 10-0-49-4, Clarke 2-0-26-0.

Meera signing off...............