Australia in finals after 87-run win
India succumbed meekly to the pressure of a chase of 253 and were bowled out for 165 by an Australia side that eagerly grabbed the chance to seal its spot in the competition deciders
India succumbed meekly to the pressure of a chase of 253 and were bowled out for 165 by an Australia side that eagerly grabbed the chance to seal its spot in the competition deciders
Scorer: Sanjay Murari | Commentator: Nitin Sundar
Right then, that completes our live coverage of this game. Here is Dan Brettig's report of the day's play. We'll soon have plenty of analysis and opinion from Sid Monga in Sydney. I'll be back on Tuesday to bring you India's last league game, perhaps India's last game on this disastrous tour. Sri Lanka will start off as favourites, and will only need to deny the bonus point to confirm their spot in the finals. Until Tuesday, on behalf of the ESPNcricinfo team, this is Nitin Sundar signing off.
As always, India fans have some scraps of hope to hold onto. If India win with a bonus point on Tuesday, and if Australia beat Sri Lanka in the last league game (make those big IFs, with salad dressing on top), India can still sneak into the final. At the moment, they don't deserve to. A win without a bonus point in Hobart won't do for India. They will then end up on 14 points, and Sri Lanka already have 15.
Watson: "Very nice start as a captain, it all worked out very well. It helped that wickets fell at appropriate times. I kept trying to get the bowlers and their ends right. I felt good and had a lot of fun today. [On the David Hussey issue] In the end it looked like David Hussey was looking to protect himself. I have full faith in Taufel and Bowden.. [I like the captaincy], but will like to see Clarke back."
Warner is Man of the Match: "I needed some runs under the belt and put my head down today. A bit of a lazy shot towards the end, a brain explosion ... The key for me is that if I get my defence right, the big shots come off."
Dhoni: "Definitely not a good night. We got off to a decent start, after that we used the part-timers when Pathan got injured. We were a bit confused, but overall we were happy with the first half. But the second innings, we left too many overs for Nos. 7,8 and 9. We have not performed to potential in these ODIs, it was an ideal opportunity for the youngsters. I am sure they have learned a lot. We need to bat well. Unfortunately we lost all the tosses and kept batting in tougher conditions."
The wheels have come off this Indian team. MS Dhoni and Duncan Fletcher will be looking at the last couple of weeks and wondering how they managed to spiral to such ignominious lows after delivering that nerve-shredding tie against Sri Lanka. At that point, SL were without a win in the tournament. Since then, India have been as abject as Sri lanka have been good.
Australia are in the final, but they will know there's plenty of work to do before those games. Their batting in the last ten overs was disastrous today, and a better team would have made them pay for it.
P Kumar b Doherty 1 (8m 4b 0x4 0x6) SR: 25
MS Dhoni has said that India were at the receiving end of both the controversial decisions today in their massive loss to Australia
Shane Watson has said captaining Australia in his first match back from an extended injury lay-off helped him think less about his temperamental body
The most remarkable thing about David Warner's 68 off 66 balls against India in Sydney was that it did not feature a single six
ESPNcricinfo presents Plays of the Day for the match between Australia and India in Sydney
India succumbed meekly to the pressure of a chase of 253 and were bowled out for 165 by an Australia side that eagerly grabbed the chance to seal its spot in the competition deciders