Believe it or not, after Brett Lee, James Hopes and Tim Paine, Australia have now lost the services of impressive paceman Peter Siddle as well. Siddle will also head back to Australia owing to a stiff left side following the visitors’ victory in the fourth ODI on Monday. Siddle sent down a mere five overs in the game, but Australia still managed to pull off the win thanks to the efforts of Doug Bollinger and Shane Watson, who scalped three wickets each.
Aussie team physio Kevin Sims informed the media, “Peter’s injury does not appear to be a serious problem, but it is unlikely he will be able to safely bowl within the next week which would therefore not allow him to have any further participation in the tour.”
As for a replacement, no official announcement has come out from Cricket Australia as of yet. And if and when they do, the impressive Dirk Nannes will be a frontrunner. He was lately seen in IPL 2 and bowled with great gusto and success. Earlier, Clint McKay and Moises Henriques were drafted into the squad following Australia continual loss of players to various kinds of injuries.
Dhoni blames batters
Indian skipper MS Dhoni blamed the team’s batsmen for the defeat at Mohali while praising the bowling and fielding effort. Dhoni felt 250 could have been chased down, especially after the start they got, but rued the fact that they failed as a batting unit. He opined that India should have batted out their quota of 50 overs.
The captain, though, stood by his decision to field first, claiming the dew factor would have made a prominent impact as the bowlers would have found it difficult to grip the ball and reiterated that it was the batting that was primarily responsible for the disappointing loss.
Dhoni also hoped that the youngsters in the side like Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Virat Kohli would learn the art of chasing soon, but added that they are still inexperienced so one can’t be harsh on them.
Ponting all praise for Bollinger
Dhoni’s opposition number Ricky Ponting, meanwhile, was all praise for newcomer Doug Bollinger. The left-arm quickie picked up three crucial Indian wickets – Sehwag, Kohli and Dhoni to set up Australia’s series-levelling win.
Describing him as “outstanding”, Ponting added that it was his spell that brought Australia back into the game after Sehwag’s sizzler. Bollinger ended with figures of 3 for 38 and it was only an all-round effort from Watson that prevented him from grabbing the Man of the Match.
