IT'S ALL ABOUT SACHIN WHEN IT COMES TO CRICKET IN INDIA

HYDERABAD: Sachin Tendulkar produced a breathtaking 175 to very nearly take India to a sensational win in a nerve-wrecking fifth One-dayer

against Australia but the hosts floundered in the dying stages to succumb to a three-run defeat and give the visitors a 3-2 lead in the series.

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Chasing Australia's mammoth 350 for four, built mainly around Shaun Marsh's 112 and Shane Watson's 93, the Indians rode on Tendulkar's heroic 141 ball knock to come within sniffing distance of a remarkable win but the tailenders faltered under pressure to be all out for 347 with two balls to spare.

It was a remarkable exhibition of strokeplay by Tendulkar, who not only notched up his 45th ODI hundred but also became the first cricketer in the history of the game to cross the 17,000-run mark.

It was also the fastest century by an Indian against the Australians as well as the highest individual score against the visitors.

The jam-packed Rajiv Gandhi International stadium witnessed an extraordinary contest which saw as many as 697 runs being scored in a game which fortunes fluctuated from one end to the other till the very end.

The two teams will now travel to Guwahati for the sixth One-dayer to be held on Sunday.

Tendulkar was at his ominous best from the onset as he clobbered the Australian attack to all parts of the ground, hitting 19 fours and four sixes.

Opening the batting, he first shared 66 runs with Virender Sehwag (38 off 30) and then stitched a vital 137 runs with Suresh Raina, who made a run-a-ball 59, for the fifth wicket in exactly 19 overs to power India to the victory.

But Tendulkar's dismissal in the first ball of the 48th over, caught when he played the scoop shot at fine leg by a diving Nathan Huaritz, unhinged the Indian innings as the remaining tail-end batsmen proved unequal to the task of scoring 19 runs in 17 balls.

Ravindra Jadeja (23) and Praveen Kumar (9) were run out, while Ashish Nehra fell for one as India slid to defeat from 299 for four in the 43rd over.

The Indian innings was floundering at 162 for four when Tendulkar was joined by Raina and their excellent stand for the fifth wicket brought India on the doorsteps of victory, but it was not to be.

Except for Sehwag and Tendulkar, the Indian top order failed as Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni departed cheaply to leave Tendulkar with the huge task of guiding India past the finishing line.

Tendulkar, who had been outstanding in the field while most of his other teammates fumbled when Australia batted, got the ideal partner in young Raina.

The duo piloted the innings from a difficult 162 for four in the 24th over with their century stand with Tendulkar guiding and cajoling his younger partner to a nicety. They were separated only when India needed 52 runs from 45 balls, Raina top-edging a sweep to keeper Graham Manou.

The hosts asked for the batting Power Play when 46 were needed from the last six overs with four wickets in hand, after Harbhajan Singh made a first ball duck, but to add to India's misery, Tendulkar started to develop leg cramps by that time.

India needed 31 runs from the last 24 balls and then 19 from 18 when Tendulkar and Ravindra Jadeja departed at the same score. The equation was brought down to 16 from 12 when Ashish Nehra was out.

The hosts needed eight of the last over and got four of those before Praveen Kumar was run by Hauritz after the right-hander went for the second run.

Tendulkar, who notched his fourth 150-plus innings in his 435th ODI, played with a lot of freedom once he reached the landmark of 17,000 runs.

Tendulkar and Sehwag were going great guns before the Delhi dasher top-edged a hook off Ben Hilfenhaus to fine leg.

Ponting decision to bring in Clint McKay into the attack in place of the expensive Bollinger worked as Gambhir although greeted the debutant with a four, the right-arm pacer got his revenge getting the lefthander's wicket, caught at third man.

Tendulkar, after reaching his 50 with a single in 47 balls that included seven hits to the fence, lofted the 26-yar-old McKay to the long on fence for his eighth four.

The champion batsman, whose previous highest score in this series was 40 made at Mohali in the fourth tie, then turned on the heat at Nathan Huaritz and struck the off-spinner for successive fours. He also hoisted him for two sixes off successive balls.

In between, Yuvraj Singh was caught and bowled in a tame manner while trying to flick Watson after he added 34 runs in 30 balls with Tendulkar.

Skipper Dhoni too departed early, caught brilliantly at gully off McKay to leave India in a spot of bother at 162 for four in the 24th over.

But Raina fully utilised the life handed by Cameron White at slip in the first ball he faced from McKay and blossomed in Tendulkar's company, hitting 10 fours and three sixes to take India inches closer to the win before the tail made mess of their efforts.

Earlier, strapping Queensland all-rounder Shane Watson smashed 93 off 89 balls with three sixes and eight fours, while left-handed Shaun Marsh's maiden ODI century took Australia to their second highest total against India.

The 26-year-old son of former Australian opener Geoff made a run-a-ball 112 with the help of two sixes and eight fours, putting on 145 runs for the first wicket with Watson.

Marsh was out in the slog phase, caught just inside the boundary line off Ashish Nehra.

Skipper Ricky Ponting too chipped in with a run-a-ball 45 and was also involved in a breezy 91-run stand for the second wicket with Marsh in 82 balls to set up the late assault in which the visitors added 105 runs in the last 10 overs.

Cameron White (57 in 33 balls with 5 sixes and 2 fours) and Michael Hussey (31 in 22 balls with 2 sixes and one four) struck lusty blows against the three Indian pacers.

Electing to bat first on a perfect batting track after Ponting had won the toss for the fourth time in five ties, the right-left duo of Watson and Marsh put on the first century stand in the series on either side to lay a strong foundation.

The Indian spinners, particularly Harbhajan Singh, applied the skids on the tourists' runaway start, to keep Australia well under check by denying them boundaries for 80 balls in the middle overs.

The Indian bowlers had a total off day barring Harbhajan whose two spells cost 28 runs in eight overs and 16 in his last two for the wicket of Watson. Nehra and Praveen Kumar were just not in their elements and were punished mercilessly by the batsmen. Munaf, in his first match, was equally unimpressive and left-arm slow bowler Ravindra Jadeja was hammered for 44 runs in five overs.

To top it all, the Indian fielding too was below par barring a few diving stops as there were a number of mis-fields, Nehra in particular being pathetic with his slow running and poor anticipation.

COMMENT ON HERO HONDA CUP 5TH ODI

We enter game five of the series with the honours shared two-all. India are doubtlessly a better team on paper but Australia, with all their injury nuisance have still managed to keep the series amazingly well balanced. the Hyderabad contest is perhaps, the most crucial match of the series. The team that wins here, will take a lot of burden off its head going into the last two ties of the series. The other team will be under the pressure to win two games back to back, which is difficult in a series so hard fought and with both teams desperate to rule the one-day international roost.

India

Unlike their oppositions, Team India is not plagued by any uncontrollables. The only excuse they can give for not being 3-1 up in the series at this point of time is their lack of application with the bat.


Gambhir will bring back the solidity in the top order, while Yuvraj, Dhoni and Raina would look to continue their good form. © AFP
Both games that they have lost in the series, its due to their batsmen’s inability to handle the situation while chasing runs. They won in Delhi, mainly due to the Yuvraj-Dhoni 148-run stand.

In order to overcome this trouble, their most successful opening pair needs to provide them with a solid start, so that the batsmen to follow have their job cut down. Sehwag and Tendulkar have managed opening stands of 25, 21, 37 and 40 so far and none of them has scored a half century. But there’s no doubting the fact that both of them are just one good knock away from getting back in their elements.

The return of Gambhir, who missed the fourth ODI due to a neck injury, will bring back the solidity in the top order, while Yuvraj, Dhoni and Raina would look to continue their good form.

While India’s overall bowling attack looked an improved one in the fourth ODI, Ishant Sharma’s 42-0 in five overs has become a cause of worry for the Indian captain. Nehra will- as he has done in the series so far- lift the onus of carrying the fast bowling on his rejuvenated shoulders.

Taking MS Dhoni’s immense liking for his spinners into consideration, Harbhajan’s encounter with good form at Mohali would be a huge relief for the skipper.

One thing that India will want to take with them from Mohali’s defeat is their alacrity and commitment to fielding.

Australia

This section of the preview has become the biggest cliché of the series. We are short of words to describe the plight of the visitors, who seems to be losing their players as an army loses its warriors in a war. The injury pandemic has engulfed the Australian team to an extent that they now have only 13 men standing to choose their playing eleven from.


With Peter Siddle flown back home and Moises Henriques ruled out of the Hyderabad match, Ponting is an extremely worried man. © AFP
Their victory in Mohali came at the cost of their best fast bowler and the all-rounder who himself was called in as a replacement to James Hopes.

With Peter Siddle flown back home and Moises Henriques ruled out of the Hyderabad match, Ponting is an extremely worried man.

Another concern is Mitchell Johnson. He has been pushing himself and playing despite the pain in his ankle but the results are not very heroic. Australia desperately need Mitch to perform like the ‘ICC Cricketer of the Year’. The brilliant form of Bollinger and Nathan Hauritz is something Ponting will take heart from.

While the Aussie batting mainly revolves around Ponting and Hussey, the will need one more batsman to stick his head out of inexperience and play a substantial innings. Watson has shown promise and now is the right time for him to convert those starts into something big.

The Pitch

The Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Hyderabad is expected to witness a run-feast. The track, according to the curator, will yield a lot of runs but will also assist the fast bowlers, owing to its bouncy nature.

Probable elevens

One might not see any changes in the Indian side, except the likely return of Gautam Gambhir in place of Virat Kohli. But if MS Dhoni wants to give struggling Ishant a break, we might just see Munaf Patel getting his first game of the series.

Australia too, shouldn’t face any difficulty to choose their playing eleven as their job is already cut down by a deluge of injuries. They just have to pick two players out of 13 to sit out. While Ben Hilfenhaus will most probably replace Siddle, Jon Holland too can hope to make his international debut.

in a low-scoring match, Yuvraj Singh (78) and MS Dhoni (71 n.o.) carved out sparkling half-centuries to steer India home in style — a convincing six-wicket victory over Australia. Going into the Mohali ODI on Monday, India leads the seven-game ODI series by 2-1.

Though there was not much to choose between the two teams, the 148-run alliance between the Indian captain and his deputy proved to be the difference in the end. The target of 230 proved too little for the two batsmen who were in majestic form. Yuvraj deservingly walked away with the man-of-the-match award for his well-constructed innings.

He may have been away from cricket for sometime but Yuvraj didn’t let go of his scintillating form during the time spent away from cricket. He came up with a special 96-ball knock of 78 when India needed it the most. And the captain courageous once again led his team from the front, with a wonderfully paced 71 not out.

Earlier, Tendulkar started off well by first, square-cutting and then flicking Johnson for two boundaries in the first over. But the visitors stuck to their plan of bowling an outside the off-stump line to the master batsman and were quite successful in keeping him quiet. The low-keeping Kotla wicket saved Tendulkar once, as one nicked by the master batsman fell just short of White, standing at first slip.


Yuvraj and Dhoni script 148-run partnership to take India home by 6 wicket. © AFP

On the other end, Sehwag’s desperation was building up, as the Aussies cramped him for runs. The pressure built on the Indian batsmen, especially Sehwag, who likes to get on with the scoring rate, right from the word go.

Peter Siddle was relentless with his accuracy and pace and proved to be a perfect replacement of Brett Lee. He spit fire in the middle as he sent down deliveries paced 145kph and above, one of which hit Sehwag on his boots and he had to be attended by the physio.

What followed the break was drama! The first ball that Sehwag faced from Johnson, he thrashed it away to the backward-point boundary, got deceived by a slower one and then was cleaned up by the left-armer off a middle line delivery.

When the runs were hard to come by, Tendulkar and Gambhir ran hard between the wickets. Tendulkar, especially, looked like a man with the intent of seeing his team through but a direct hit by Mitchell Johnson ended the match for the Master Blaster. He went for 32 of 47 balls.

Now, India had two new batsmen at the crease in Gambhir and Yuvraj with 52-2 on the board. One more wicket in this situation could have India in a spot of bother, and that’s exactly what Nathan Hauritz had in his mind when Ponting introduced him into the attack in the 16th over. The off-spinner produced a gem of a delivery to get the man who was most likely to take the game away from them. He pitched one straight and in the good length area which went between the bat and the pad to disturb the off-stump of Gambhir. India were now struggling at 53-3, still needing 176 from 34.4 overs.

Ponting seized the opportunity and went to an attacking mode, bringing his fielders in. The need of the hour for India was a big partnership from Dhoni and Yuvraj. The duo successfully put up a significant partnership of 50 and both the batsmen celebrated their half-century alliance by helping themselves to a boundary each, off Hauritz’s two half volleys in the 26th over. The sensible batting by the Indian skipper and his deputy restored sanity to the once falling-apart Indian innings.

But the world knows Yuvraj cannot be kept quiet for long, especially once he gets his eyes in. The elegant left-hander opened up the floodgates and there was a deluge of runs. He mixed superb timing with awesome power as he set the Kotla on fire. While he sent one sailing over the long-on boundary with an effortless flick, he also plundered one with disdain over the same region.

Dhoni, at the other end was happy to be a spectator to Yuvraj’s heroics. The Indian captain did a highly remarkable job in the way he altered his game and mindset to play a run-accumulator after performing the role a destroyer at Nagpur.

The captain and the vice-captain had now taken India to a touching distance of victory as the hosts required 45 from the last 10 overs with seven men standing. They set up a stand of 148 in 172 balls, easily the highest in the match. Australia succeeded in breaking the partnership when Henriques had Yuvraj lbw in the 44th over. But by then it was too late.

Dhoni took over from Yuvraj and scored some fine boundaries to see India home by six wickets and with 10 balls to spare.

As far as the Aussie batting goes, it was Hussey all the way yet again! The incredibly consistent South Australian once again proved to be a major thorn in India’s flesh, as he played a fabulous knock of 81 from 82 balls to steer Australia to a fighting total of 229 for five.

Ricky Ponting decided to take up the opening challenge along with Shane Watson in the absence of Tim Paine. Both openers hung in patiently batted exactly the way the pitch demanded them to — with dead straight bat. They realized the importance of singles on this wicket and handled pressure well by rotating the strike. Even the boundaries came off some exquisitely timed cricket shots with gentle caresses and no brute force.

Seeing the turn extracted by Jadeja in the early overs, Dhoni at once went for an all-spin attack, inducting Yuvraj and Harbhajan into the action and it paid off instantly.

Watson, who had failed to produce anything special in the first two matches stuck around with his skipper and played a mature knock of 41. But hefailed to capitalise on a good start, as Yuvraj Singh deceived him with a flighted delivery outside the off-stump, while Dhoni’s quick hands dislodged the bails in a flash.

The onus was back on Ponting and Hussey and they went about the task beautifully, nudging and pushing the ball against the Indian spinners.

Ponting once again showed his class as he held the inexperienced Aussie batting line-up together with his crafty and risk-free half century. Hussey yet again proved to be the perfect ally.

Just when the going got smooth for Australia, young Ravindra Jadeja, who got Ponting wrapped in front of his pads in the first ODI, once again got the better of the great batsman as he slipped in a quicker one that turned out to be too good for Ponting, who was well set on 59. Jadeja continued his imposing performance in the series as he bowled his nine overs beautifully for 2/41.

Australia suffered a double blow as in the very next over, part-timer Suresh Raina accounted for Cameron White, who was given out caught behind after a ball-juggling show from Dhoni.

The Indian spinners — regular and part-timers alike — stole the show from the strike bowlers with their tight bowling display. The visitors were denied a boundary for an overwhelming 21.4 overs when the slow bowlers were in command.

The dry period finally came to an end with a paddle-sweep from Adam Voges off Raina and Hussey soon followed the suit with a couple of hits to the boundary.

Hussey, with his third consecutive half century of the series, perfectly lived up to his Mr. Cricket sobriquet. One of the best players of the reverse-sweep, Hussey played the shot adroitly to good effect. But in the end, it didn’t prove enough to steer his team to victory.

Finally, here’s one for the records. Going into this match, India had never lost an ODI in which the Yuvraj-Dhoni duo had put together hundred or more runs. And after the Delhi clash, it stays that way.

New 'windows' open up to computer users

If you have been holding off buying a new computer, then Windows 7, the latest operating system (OS) from Microsoft, will give you a good excuse to buy one. Windows 7, or Win 7, is largely believed to be better than Microsoft’s previous OS Windows Vista and way more advanced than the last generation Windows XP. But is it really all that?

First impressions
While it is easy to get infatuated with a new design and swanky features, the viability of an OS is only determined when you begin using it eight hours a day. We used a preview copy of Win 7 for over 12 hours and we have to admit that we do prefer it over Vista because it’s more stable and did not crash out even once.

We installed Win 7 on a desktop with 1 GHz processor and 4GB of RAM. The OS took a little over 30 minutes to install on the PC that had Vista Home Basic edition (time to install could vary depending on hardware profile and existing OS on your PC). Decisively, Win 7 loads faster than Vista, which takes hours to install.

Win 7’s minimum hardware requirements are roughly similar to those of Vista Home Basics — both require a 1 GHz processor and 15-16GB of hard-drive space, although Win 7 demands a minimum of 1GB memory, while Vista Home Basics needs 512MB memory.

Let’s be honest here. Win 7 is both a sigh of relief and breath of fresh air, after Vista. Built with a renewed focus on performance and ease-of-use, Win 7 is poised to succeed where Vista couldn’t.

Why is it better than Windows Vista?
Haunted by sluggish performance issues, from playing games to complicated disk access programmes to poor networking features, Vista was undoubtedly Microsoft’s biggest failure. Win 7, by contrast, will run fine on most of the existing netbooks as well as older PCs.

Win 7 delivers a completely revamped user interface and some brand-new features designed to make organising and sharing your files easier. Simply put, the user gets much more than new wallpaper and a different colour taskbar.

The taskbar, in addition to showing the applications being used by the user, also hosts shortcuts to the most commonly used applications (say Word or Media Player). When the mouse pointer is moved over the taskbar shortcuts, the user can preview the application.

Unlike Vista, the re-designed user interface of Win 7 gives the user intuitive shortcuts like ability to maximise a window by dragging it to the top of the screen, minimise it by dragging it to the bottom, maximise to half the screen by dragging it to either edge, or (our favorite) minimising all opened windows by shaking the one you want to focus on.

Is it really more secure and easier than Windows XP?
In one word — yes, Win 7 is way more secure than Windows XP and a step ahead of Vista too. Even though it is eight years old, Windows XP still remains the world’s most widely used operating system and almost completely dominates the netbook market.

But Windows XP users have a lot more to gain by going to Win 7. Vista had introduced some great features, such as fast searches of the entire hard drive, which, of course, are present in Win 7 too. Such features will be quite an attraction for users who haven’t yet used them on their Windows XP machines.

All technical tirades aside, Win 7 is the back-to-basics operating system. Moving beyond the eye-candy features, Windows XP users can customise how the user account control functions, or how tray icons work to suit their needs. This was never there in Windows XP.

What type of PCs and laptopscan run Windows 7?
The basic requirements of a PC to run Win 7 are a 1 GHz processor, minimum 1GB of RAM and 16GB hard drive space. In simple words, any hardware that worked with Vista will work for Win 7 too.

Since Microsoft is targeting future generation of casual users who use computers for mainly emails, office documents, Internet and video among other things, Win 7 could be an ideal choice for future PCs.

HP India has started retailing Win 7-preloaded PCs at between Rs 27,990 and Rs 90,000, while Acer PCs with Win 7 OS will be priced at between Rs 15,000 and Rs 35,000. Acer notebooks with the new OS will be priced at Rs 21,000-70,000.

Should you get ready to pay for the upgrade?
That’s a million-dollar question, if you are a Windows XP user. Is it worth Rs 5,800, that a Windows XP users will pay to get the new features in Win 7? Probably yes, as a superior OS also means a more secure and functional PC. But this is not necessarily a must-have upgrade for all the existing Windows XP users.

Although those users who will be upgrading from Vista will find it easier (and cheaper) to adopt Win 7, those who are migrating from Windows XP might need to completely wipe their hard drives and re-install their applications.

What you pay and what you get
* Windows 7 Starter (via OEM only): Up to three concurrent applications, ability to join a Home Group, improved taskbar and JumpLists.

* Windows 7 Home Basic: For Rs 5,899, users get unlimited applications, live thumbnail previews that enhance visual experience and advanced networking support.

* Windows 7 Home Premium: For Rs 6,799, you get Aero Glass and advanced windows navigation, improved media format support, enhanced Windows Media Centre and media streaming, and also multi-touch and improved handwriting recognition.

* Windows 7 Professional: For Rs 11,199, users can join a managed network with the Domain Join feature, protect data with advanced network backup and encrypting file system and print to the right printer at home or facilitate intuitive printing with Location Aware Printing option.

* Windows 7 Ultimate (worldwide): For Rs 11,799, it is meant for advanced users who want to protect data using the BitLocker feature on internal and external drives, deploy DirectAccess for seamless connectivity over corporate networks based on Windows Server 2008 R2.