Five things against India do to break South Africa jinx

While the whole world was gunning for the heads of Indian cricketers for their deplorable performance leading up to the World Cup, things have taken a turn for the better for the Men in Blue.

In a tournament where India's recent performance left little hope of making it to the last four, let alone the final, the team has turned the tides in their favour. Constructive criticism has become a thing of the past and credit should be given where it is due.

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Before the Pakistan humdinger, India were down for the count but not only did MS Dhoni's boys got back on their feet but did it in style. The defending champions turned up with a purpose to win and proved a point while the other team, well, never really showed up. The tactical mistakes followed by some poor efforts in the field dosn't help your cause and Pakistan did all the things you can ill-afford in a big match.

India, on the other hand, did just about everything right, which will only go on to boost their confidence in the match against South Africa. But the African lions will not fall prey to the influence of spin alone and India should not resort to acting the goat and become complacent.

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South Africa may be busy guarding against hiccups and the chokes that follow, but they have never lost to India in last three World Cup meetings. In that case, India have every reason to not be gung-ho about beating Pakistan and stay focused on the next job at hand.

Here is a list of five things that India should be well rehearsed in to get the monkey off their back.

ALSO SEE A bit of pressure is off: Dhoni

Bowling needs to be extra special

India's bowling surprised everyone who had followed them over the last three months Down Under. But while it showed improvement that gladdened every Indian heart, the unit will be put to test against South Africa. The new ball needs to be used in trying to pick up wickets and not stem the flow of runs, given the strength and depth of Proteas batting. If Dhoni resorts to containing tactics, it might force his team to play catch up .

ALSO SEE India can match South Africa: Sachin

Grab the half-chances

Although India's fielding was quite sharp in the opener against Pakistan, they will help themselves to understand that the margin of error against a side like South Africa is bare minimum and half-chances missed can go on to haunt them. On that note, the subcontinent giants need to cash in on the opportunities that might be few and far in between. A missed run-out and a couple of misfieldings in the Pakistan game were only overlooked due to the margin of victory against their arch-rivals, things the defending champions will do good to avoid.

Losing wickets in cluster: It was a major concern in the last World Cup as India lost their match against South Africa due to their sudden batting collapse. From a position of dominance at 267 for 1, India slummed to 296 all out, which cost them the match in the end. India can't afford to make the same mistake as the match against Pakistan was pretty much a carbon copy of an old malaise of losing wickets in cluster at death, which still seems to be an inseparable problem plaguing Indian batting overseas.

Keeping wickets in hand: It is difficult to predict which Indian batting will turn up on that day but given the conditions and the brand new white ball from both ends, India will do themselves a favour in seeing it off, especially when you have the likes of Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Mokel waiting to pounce on you like a pack of wolves. India did that well against Pakistan and gave their bowlers something to bowl at and it will only be wise to follow the same path.

Captaincy: Runs on the board and strangling the opposition with spinners has been Mahendra Singh Dhoni's forte as a captain. While South Africans are not the best players against spin, it will still be a monumental task for the Indian spinners to fox the Proteas batting on a regular basis considering, other than R Ashwin, the team does not have the quality spinners they once closed their eyes and relied on.

MCG over the years has not been a happy hunting ground for the finger spinners, a fact that the great Erapalli Prasanna and Shivlal Yadav would vouch for. R Ashwin will be aware of that fact and Ravindra Jadeja, who is more likely to make the team ahead of young Axar Patel, is more of a container than a wicket-taker. Dhoni's role in chopping and changing the bowling options and keeping an attacking option open all the time will be a challenge and that is where his captaincy will be put to 

Five key contests which will decide the winner of india- pakistan cricket match

Ah India vs Pakistan – it really does not get any better than this in World Cup cricket does it? Particularly for the India fans, who have never seen their team lose to their biggest rivals in the biggest tournaments of them all.

Virat Kohli needs to have a good game for India in their World Cup match against PakistanPal Pillai/Sportzpics/BCCI

Will there be a first? Or will India zoom along their merry way again?

Below is a look at the five key matchups, which could decide the outcome of the match.

India's opening bowlers against the Pakistani batsmen: The fast bowlers for India, to put it kindly, have been poor, and then some. If the likes of Mohammad Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (if he plays), Umesh Yadav and Mohit Sharma do not pick up early wickets, then that don't-really-want-it pressure will be right on the misfiring India batsmen.

India's bowlers vs the lower middle order/tail/death overs: India have struggled to kill teams off while bowling, with that in turn coming to hurt them in the end, be that in Test matches or ODIs. The death overs are so key in this format, and if India get through the Pakistan top order, they need to make sure they keep the pressure on and whittle the sometimes-brittle Pakistani batting down.

Misbah-ul-Haq's wicket will be key. If the Pakistan skipper stays for a while at the crease, then he will ensure an astute finish for his team – be that batting first or second.

Mohammad Irfan vs the India openers: Shikhar Dhawan has looked like a fish out of water more often than not in Australia, and if the left-hander succumbs to the extra bounce from Irfan, then India could find themselves in "OK, so should Virat Kohli come in now, or should we protect him and the middle order" position again.

Rohit Sharma is as important to India as Kohli at the moment, and Irfan will target the right-hander as well, knowing the importance of picking up his wicket. A couple of wickets early on, and Pakistan could very well be on their way to their first World Cup win over India.

Virat Kohli vs anybody really: Such is the importance of the batsman, that India have looked out of shape completely with him out of form in coloured clothes. If Kohli catches fire – and the man he is so often compared to, very rarely had a bad game against Pakistan at the World Cup – no total will be enough/a big total will be in the offing.

India's lower middle order (read MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja) vs Pakistan's unknown factor: With Umar Gul, Junaid Khan, Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez all missing, Pakistan's bowling is a little bit of an unknown quantity and how the batsmen a little lower down the order cope with it will be crucial, especially in a chase.

Big players always step up in these big games – and it remains to be seen just who that big player will be. Could be Misbah or Shahid Afridi or Umar Akmal for Pakistan and Kohli, Dhoni and Rohit for India.

AB de villiers - The mysterious cricketer

Abraham Benjamin "AB" de Villiers (born 17 February 1984) is a South African cricketer, who captains the South AfricanOne Day International (ODI) team, having succeeded Graeme Smith after the 2011 Cricket World Cup. He is also part of theRoyal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League.

Currently regarded as one of the best batsmen in the world, De Villiers dominated the top of the ICC Test batting rankings in 2014, along with Kumar Sangakkara. As of January 2015, he is ranked second in the ICC Test and first in the ODI batting rankings.

The son of Dr Abraham P de Villiers, he attended Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool (Afrikaans High School for Boys, also known as Affies), a public school located in Pretoria. De Villiers is a right-handed batsman, who, in a very short space of time, has accumulated many runs in Tests including 16 centuries and 32 fifties. He still holds the record for most Test innings without registering a duck (78), before being dismissed for nought against Bangladesh in November 2008. He also holds the second-highest individual score by a South African batsman in an innings, with 278*. Until 2012, he was an occasional wicket-keeperfor South Africa, although since the retirement of regular Test keeper Mark Boucher and under his own ODI captaincy he has started to regularly keep wicket for the national side in Tests, ODIs and T20Is.

He holds the record of the fastest 50 and 100 in ODI cricket. On 18 January 2015, AB de Villiers smashed the fastest century in ODI history, breaking New Zealand's Corey Anderson's record, reaching 100 off just 31 balls and going on to score 149 runs off just 44 balls against the West Indies.

Education[

AB de Villiers attended Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool (Afrikaans High School for Boys, also known as Affies), a public school located in Pretoria. He attended alongside Jacques Rudolph, Heino Kuhn and Francois du Plessis, fellow Titans and South African international cricketers.

He is a recipient of the prestigious national medal from the Late Nelson Mandela for a science project.^8]

Other Sports

He is a talented sportsman and has excelled in golf, rugby, badminton, cricket and tennis. At his school he was part of the school's U-14 cricket team. He played golf and got a scratch handicap in it, which means he is a player whose average score for a round of golf is par or better. Rugby was the most followed sport at his school so he took it up too. He was gifted sportsman having a natural talent of anything that was a sport. He once had a flair for hockey, and made it to the U-16 side of the school. During his period as a team member his team did really well. He was shortlisted for South Africa's junior national hockey team.

He returned to play rugby when he stopped with hockey. He was soon part of the school's rugby team, the 1st XV of the Affies. He performed extraordinarily well and was selected for the Blue Balls U-18 side, which had some big names that would later represent South African rugby.

He was the member of South Africa's junior Davis Cup tennis team. He was ranked in the top two in his age division for tennis in South Africa. He was also the South Africa's U-19 national badminton champion.

Other than that, he held six South African school swimming records in school and also held the record in the 100m dash in South Africa's junior athletics.

Cricket career[

De Villiers became the second youngest and second fastest South African to reach 1000 test runs after Graeme Pollock and in his test career so far has batted, bowled and kept wicket as well. He is a talented sportsman and has excelled in golf (playing off scratch despite playing infrequently, rugby, badminton, cricket and tennis. However, he chose to pursue a career in cricket and, after a spell in the South Africa U19 team, he made his debut for the Titans in 2003/4. He also played for Carrickfergus Cricket Club in Northern Ireland as their overseas player in 2004.

He made his test debut as a 20-year-old on 16 December 2004 against England at Port Elizabeth. He made an impression opening the batting, but was dropped down the order for the second test and also handed the wicket-keeping gloves. In this match, he made a match saving half century from number seven. However, he found himself at the top of the order again for the final test of the series and has played the majority of his tests there.

Despite a good tour of the Caribbean where he scored 178 to help South Africa seal a test series win, his rapid progress was halted on the tour of Australia in 2005. Despite playing Shane Warne well, he struggled and made just 152 runs in 6 innings.

He has been used in a similar fashion to Jonty Rhodes in ODIs, opening the innings, although he currently bats in the middle order. The 2005 ODI tour to India represented a 'coming of age' for De Villiers as a cricketer as he scored his second ODI half century on 24 October 2006, batting 5th in a partnership with Mark Boucher, playing against an impressive Sri Lankan side. De Villiers gave the selectors a sign by producing his then highest one-day score of 92 not out, which included 12 fours and one six, from 98 balls against India in the 2006 winter series.

De Villiers has a reputation as an outstanding fielder, typified by a diving run-out of Simon Katich of Australia in 2006, when he dived to stop the ball, and while still lying on hisstomach facing away from the stumps, he tossed the ball backwards over his shoulder and effected a direct hit. This has also led people to make further comparisons of him toJonty Rhodes as he was also one of the finest fielders of his generation.

In 2009 he was nominated as ICC Cricketer of the year and ICC Test Player of the year.

On 6 June 2011, then S.A. coach Gary Kirsten announced that AB de Villiers will be South Africa's new limited-overs captain, at a news conference. "I'm very excited but I'm also inexperienced. But I've learnt a lot the last seven years from an unbelievable captain," said De Villiers, who has never captained a team at first-class level. "It's a big responsibility, but there'll be a fresh look in the side, which is good."

World Cup 2007[

Competing in the 2007 Cricket World Cup he was in career best form in ODIs having scored four 50s during the South Africa vs India/Pakistan (2007) matches.

In the early stages of the tournament his form was poor with three failures including a duck against the Netherlands in a match where his team broke various records for batting. His talent was shown by a 92 in the first round against Australia which was scored in a high-pressure situation. Indeed it was around the time De Villiers got out (run out from the boundary by Shane Watson) when South Africa lost their rhythm and went on to lose the game.

His second highest innings to date in ODIs came in the Super 8 game against West Indies on 10 April 2007. He made his maiden ODI hundred, 146 from just 130 balls including 5 sixes and 12 fours. This was despite batting with a runner for the latter stages of his innings and seemingly finding every shot painful due to a combination of cramps, heat exhaustion and dehydration. His innings consisted of a second wicket partnership of 170 with Jacques Kallis and a third wicket partnership of 70 with Herschelle Gibbs the latter of which was dominated by De Villiers batting on one leg. De Villiers' innings helped set up a total of 356/4 from 50 overs.

His batting during the world cup was thus at the peaks of both sides since he had also failed to score on 4 occasions, a record in and of itself

2008[

On 4 April 2008 he became the first South African to score a double century against India with his top score of 217*.

De Villiers scored an obdurate 174 that helped set up a ten-wicket win for South Africa in the second Test against England at Headingley Carnegie in Leeds in July 2008. This was followed by a 97 at The Oval before he came down the wicket trying to smash Panesar for a boundary and was clean bowled.

Tour of Australia 2008/09[

In the first Test in Perth, De Villiers scored a matchwinning century to help South Africa chase down the second highest ever fourth innings target of 414 with six wickets in hand. This was South Africa's first Test victory in Australia in 15 years and appeared to go a long way towards tilting world cricket's balance of power after over a decade of Australian dominance. De Villiers also took four diving catches in the course of the match, including one to dismiss Jason Krejza, a stunner at backward point.

De Villiers only scored 11 runs though in the second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and made another low score in the first innings of the final Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground. In the second innings of that Test though, De Villiers scored a patient half-century as South Africa almost held on for an against-the-odds draw.In the 4th ODI in Adelaide he played as wicketkeeper after Boucher was ruled out. He then scored 82 not out from 85 balls with 6 fours and a six to win the series and was named man of the match.

Return Series, Johannesburg 2009[

In the first Test at the Wanderers Stadium, De Villiers provided lone resistance in the first innings against a bowling attack led by pace bowler,Mitchell Johnson, scoring 104* of 185 balls with 9 fours and 1 six, whilst his teammates all fell for under 50. But in the second innings he made only 3 of 7.

In the third test, after centuries from Ashwell Prince and Jacques Kallis, De Villiers became the third centurion of the innings with a score of 163 off 196 balls with 12 fours and 7 sixes. This knock also tied the record of most sixes in an over as De Villiers, off a McDonald over, hit four consecutive sixes.

In the following 5 game ODI series, De Villiers played consistently, although starting badly in the first game, scoring only 2 runs. However, he went on to make 36*, 80, 84, and 38, and was named Player of the Series at the conclusion of game 5.

Series against Zimbabwe October 2010[

He was rested for the two-match Twenty20 series against Zimbabwe and because Mark Boucher was injured as well Heino Kuhn donned the keeping gloves. De Villiers returned for the ODI series and also took over the gloves while Mark Boucher was recovering. He did well against Zimbabwe scoring two centuries out of the three ODIs as South Africa comfortably won the three match series 3–0.

Against Pakistan in October 2010[

His major challenge came against Pakistan for the two Twenty20 matches, where he kept wicket. In the first match he was out for a second-ball duck off a superb delivery byShoaib Akhtar. In the second T20I he scored 11 runs. He then participated in the five-match ODI series where South Africa were chasing 203 to win and he scored 51 before he was caught and bowled by Saeed Ajmal. In the second ODI he scored 29 as he was bowled by Shahid Afridi; in the same match a flamboyant Abdul Razzaq played the greatest innings of his life to lift Pakistan to an unbelievable victory. During the third match he scored 19 before he was stumped by Zulqarnain Haider. It turned out to be a mistake by the umpire as he had pressed the wrong button. In the fourth match he missed out on a half-century while on 49 when he gave his wicket to the fielder at point. His good form in the series continued when he scored 61 in the final ODI as South Africa won by 57 runs and the series 3–2.

Indian Premier League[

In the fourth season of Indian Premier League, he was contracted by Royal Challengers Bangalore for US$1.1 million. He played for the Delhi Daredevils in the previous seasons.

ICC World Cup 2011[

AB de Villiers scored two successive centuries in the 2011 World Cup. He became the first South African to score two centuries in a single World Cup and the fifth batsman afterMark Waugh, Saeed Anwar, Rahul Dravid and Matthew Hayden to score two consecutive centuries in a single World Cup tournament. He also became the 16th batsman to score two or more centuries in one World Cup tournament. AB de Villiers' strike rate of 136.73 is the highest among South African batsmen who have scored centuries in World Cup matches. With his third player of the match award in World Cups, de Villiers is joint second with Jacques Kallis on the list of South African players with most match awards in World Cups. Lance Klusener heads the list with five awards.

2011–12[

In the 2011–12 South African summer, de Villiers featured in the home series against Australia and against Sri Lanka. In the latter, he scored a century (160 not out) in South Africa's win in the third and deciding Test of the series. He was named the "Player of the Series", having scored 353 runs at an average of 117.66. He then led South Africa for his first series since being appointed captain of the One Day International team. In his first match as captain, South Africa inflicted the heaviest defeat in Sri Lanka's history, with a 258-run win in Paarl on 11 January 2012. It was also the largest margin of victory (by runs) in an ODI match between two Test-playing teams. South Africa went on to win the ODI series, and De Villiers was named player of the series, having scored 329 runs at an average of 109.66, including a century (125 not out) in the fifth and final match inJohannesburg. On 10 July, De Villiers was handed full-time wicketkeeping duties after Mark Boucher announced retirement from cricket after suffering eye injuries from a hit from a bail the day before.

2013[

On 4 February 2013, de Villiers equalled Jack Russell's record of 11 dismissals in a match. He also scored an unbeaten 103 off 117 balls in South Africa's second innings of the same match. In the process, he became the first wicketkeeper to score a century and claim 10 dismissals in a Test.

On 18 March, during the third ODI match of Pakistan's tour of South Africa at Johannesburg, De Villiers and Hashim Amla shared the record for the highest third wicket partnership in an ODI when they scored 238. De Villiers scored 12 fours and 3 sixes, and a total of 128.

2015[

On 18 January 2015, de Villiers scored the fastest century by a batsman in One Day International cricket, off 31 balls and eventually scoring 149 runs off 44 balls.

Sachin Tendulkar - The god of Cricket

Sachin Tendulkar (ⁱ/ˌsətʃɪn tɛnˈduːlkər/; born 24 April 1973) is a former Indian cricketer widely acknowledged as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He took up cricket at the age of eleven, made his Test debut on 15 November 1989 against Pakistan in Karachi at the age of sixteen, and went on to represent Mumbai domestically and India internationally for close to twenty-four years. He is the only player to have scored one hundred international centuries, the first batsman to score a double century in a One Day International, the only player to complete more than 30,000 runs in international cricket.^[8] and the 16th player and first Indian to aggregate 50,000 runs or more in all forms of domestic and international recognised cricket.^[9]

In 2002 just half way through his career, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ranked him the second greatest Test batsman of all time, behind Don Bradman, and the second greatest ODI batsman of all time, behind Viv Richards.^[10] Later in his career, Tendulkar was a part of the Indian team that won the 2011 World Cup, his first win in six World Cup appearances for India.^[11]He had previously been named "Player of the Tournament" at the 2003 edition of the tournament, held in South Africa. In 2013, he was the only Indian cricketer included in an all-time Test World XI named to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.

Tendulkar received the Arjuna Award in 1994 for his outstanding sporting achievement, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 1997, India's highest sporting honour, and the Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan awards in 1999 and 2008, respectively, India's fourth and second highest civilian awards. After a few hours of his final match on 16 November 2013, the Prime Minister's Office announced the decision to award him the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award. He is the youngest recipient to date and the first ever sportsperson to receive the award.^] He also won the 2010 Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for cricketer of the year at the ICC awards. In 2012, Tendulkar was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India. He was also the first sportsperson and the first person without an aviation background to be awarded the honorary rank of group captain by the Indian Air Force. In 2012, he was named an Honorary Member of the Order of Australia.

In December 2012, Tendulkar announced his retirement from ODIs. He retired from Twenty20 cricket in October 2013 and subsequently announced his retirement from all forms of cricket, retiring on 16 November 2013 after playing his200th and final Test match, against the West Indies in Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium. Tendulkar played 664 international cricket matches in total, scoring 34,357 runs.

History of valentine day

Saint Valentine's Day, also known as Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is a holiday observed on February 14 each year. It is celebrated in many countries around the world, although it is not a holiday in most of them.

St. Valentine's Day began as a liturgical celebration one or more early christian saints named valentinus. Several martyrdom stories were invented for the various Valentines that belonged to February 14, and added to later martyrologies. A popular hagiographer account of Saint Valentine of Rome states that he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted  the Roman Empire. According to legend, during his imprisonment, he healed the daughter of his jailer, Asterius. An embellishment to this story states that before his execution he wrote her a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell.^[3] Today, Saint Valentine's Day is an official feast day in the Anglican Communion,^[4] as well as in the Lutheran Church.The Eastern Orthodox Church also celebrates Saint Valentine's Day, albeit on July 6 and July 30, the former date in honor of the Roman presbyter Saint Valentine, and the latter date in honor of Hieromartyr Valentine, the Bishop of Interamna (modern Terni). In Brazil, the Dia de São Valentim is recognized on June 12.

The day was first associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition ofcourtly love flourished. In 18th-century England, it evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). In Europe, Saint Valentine's Keys are given to lovers "as a romantic symbol and an invitation to unlock the giver’s heart", as well as to children, in order to ward off Saint Valentine's Malady. Valentine's Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards.

Warm up match- India vs Austrelia

India were beaten comprehensively by Australia, going down by 106 runs in their ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 warm-up match at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday. Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane briefly offered India a faint glimmer of hope, but the rest of the batting folded without a fight as India crashed to their fifth straight 50-over defeat in the last couple of weeks. 

After David Warner’s century and Glenn Maxwell’s 57-ball 122, all eyes were on Indian openers Dhawan and Rohit Sharma, whose 138 against Australia was the only century India scored in the tri-series leading up to the World Cup. However, Rohit was unable to replicate the effort, as he nudged Josh Hazlewood to Aaron Finch at slip for eight.

Virat Kohli came in at his preferred No. 3 position, and hit three boundaries en route to an attractive 18. He was looking good, but inside edged a ball from Mitchell Starc onto his stumps while trying to run it down third man. At 53 for two, India were in deep trouble, but Rahane joined Dhawan and the duo added 104 for the third wicket. 

Both men scored their respective half-centuries, but once Rahane was dismissed holing out to Mitchell Marsh off Pat Cummins, the floodgates were opened in the most comprehensive way imaginable. Suresh Raina was brilliantly run out by David Warner, MS Dhoni lasted all of one ball, pulling Cummins to square leg for what would have been six had it not been for Starc’s tremendous one-handed catch. Stuart Binny was then bowled by Mitchell Johnson to leave India in danger of not making it to 200.

Ambati Rayudu gave Indian supporters a couple a few reasons to cheer, as he went on the offensive. He hammered four fours and four sixes en rote to a 42-ball 53, but it was much too little and far too late in the innings to cause any damage. That India managed to cross 250 was mainly due to the fact that the likes of Akshar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin were able to come in at Nos 10 and 11. In the end, India were severely out-classed by their dominant hosts.

Earlier, Australia set India a mammoth target of 372. Maxwell clobbered as many as eight sixes and 11 boundaries as he retired on 122, to help Australia make most of the perfect batting track at the Adelaide Oval. Warner continued to make most of his excellent form as he smashed a fine century, scoring 104 off 83 balls. The left-handed batsman displayed terrific timing throughout his stay at the crease, swatting 14 fours and two sixes to notch up his yet another century against India. Australia were off to a rollicking start early on as Warner smashed a four off the first ball in the innings. In fact, the first deliveries of the first three overs in the innings yielded boundaries to Australia, with their openers Warner and Finch providing a strong start.

Warner and Finch added 62 runs for the opening wicket, as they punished Indian bowlers for maintaining poor line and length. Finch failed to convert the start that he got into a big score, as he was the first man to be dismissed, by Stuart Binny in the ninth over of the innings. 

Shane Watson walked in to bat at No. 3 and despite getting a start; he too failed to make most of the opportunity. The right-handed batsman was dismissed by Mohit Sharma, who has been confirmed as the replacement for Ishant Sharma by the International Cricket Council (ICC). Mohit got Watson caught by Akshar Patel in the deep, as the Indian fielder did an excellent job to take the catch. Watson fell after scoring 22 runs, which came off 17 balls and three boundaries. 

Australia slipped further as Steven Smith had a rare failure, as in the 16th over he walked across the wickets off Umesh Yadav and missed to connect with the ball completely. Smith’s leg-stump was knocked off as India celebrated the third wicket.

However, George Bailey and Warner then teamed up to take Australia ahead, as they added 65 runs for the fourth wicket. Bailey, who has been in poor form of late shrugged it off with a fine 66-ball 44 with the help of six hits to the fence. It was in the 27th over when Warner got to his century with a four off Akshar, but the Indian spinner got rid of the Australian opener soon in the same over.

Maxwell and Bailey teamed up to take Australia ahead, and it was in the 33rd over when the former started to open up. Maxwell reverse-swept two boundaries off Akshar and ended the over with a six, signalling that India were up for trouble. The right-handed batsman hit boundaries and sixes at will, as Indians had no answer for the havoc he created.

The first delivery of the 45th over got India the wicket of Mitchell Marsh, but Maxwell slammed two fours and then three consecutive sixes off Umesh as he also completed his century off just 53 balls, with the help of 10 fours and five sixes.

Brief scores:

Australia 371 in 48.2 overs (David Warner 103, Glenn Maxwell 122 retd.; Mohammed Shami 3 for 83) beat India 265 in 45.1 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 59, Ajinkya Rahane 66, Ambati Rayudu 53; Pat Cummins 3 for 30) by 106 runs.