The Aussie cricketers may not be the most sportive people in the world but it is amazing how they do find ways to make comebacks with sheer will and determination like they have managed to do in the on-going series against India, when everything seemed lost.
Of course, in the nineties and early twenties, they had proven match-winners like Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Mathew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist and many more to win them matches from impossible situations but with the present (almost a second string) side even they knew it would be an uphill task with as many as nine regulars (Including the ones who did not even come to our shores) sidelined due to injuries, one wonders how long they can keep fighting in a long One-Day series involving seven matches.
It will also be an interesting thought to just visualise the fate of any team, including India, if nine of their regulars are sidelined due to injury.
But at the moment all that matters is that they have overcome all odds to level the series 2-all despite the home team holding the aces up their sleeves, which also included a winning momentum on familiar grounds.
It is hard to blame Dhoni's men for giving a semblance of a chance for the Aussies, who are handicapped with their strike bowler Mitchell Johnson (who aspires to become a world class all-rounder) bowl like a high school cricketer without any rhyme or rhythm and bat like true tail-ender, to square the series.
For the hosts, despite knowing fully well that both Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli are highly talented, one wonders why they cannot curb their intentions to attack every ball and be more consistent with the bat or is it that they are more interested in playing for the gallery alone. Only time will tell.
Sachin Tendulkar was just unlucky not to surpass another milestone in his illustrious career spanning two decades and I am sure he will get to the 17,000-run mark at Hyderabad. After all these years as an international cricketer he should know better that wrong or bad decisions are part and parcel of the game and no point in cribbing over it in the dressing room.
Was his reaction just out of frustration for not being able to help the team win and take a 3-1 lead or because of simply missing out on another personal milestone is something we will never know.
After blaming the Indian bowling time and again, Dhoni, must have realized he has another angle to worry about and that is the batting. More than the bowling or the fielding that has let the team down in this series it is the unexplained batting collapse that he will be trying to sort out.
All in all the recent injury scare to their consistent new ball bowler Peter Siddle and all-rounder Moises Henriques might have tilted the scale in India's favour a little bit but you can never be sure of what Ponting's men can do especially when they are pushed against the wall.
Time and again, his decisions after winning the toss, seems to be back-firing and must be praying that he does not win the toss anymore in this series and his counterpart wins and takes all the decisions henceforth.
Whatever the final verdict of the series might be, I am sure the fans will have a field day by simply watching the top two one-day teams in the world fight it out like two gladiators fighting for their lives till the last thrust of the sword pierces one of them in the heart.
