SYDNEY: First there was a storm, then a thunderstorm. But an uneasy calm soon returned to the Sydney Cricket Ground amid rising tension and chaos and Australia scampered to a two-wicket victory here on Thursday night.
But many, including the Australian captain himself, would readily accept that it wasn't a fair ending at all: the winner had been declared much, much before the contest had been won.
India, who seemed to be right on top after scoring 296 magnificent runs, simply ran into rough weather.
Yes, much before thunder started rolling in the skies, Adam Gilchrist's strokes were racing to the boundary at lightning speed. But it wouldn't have been easy to go all the way.
Eventually, as rain stopped play for almost an hour, Australia got a revised target: 225 in 34 overs. They were already 73 for one at that stage, after 9.3 overs; now they needed only 152 in 24 overs. Extremely gettable.
Gilchrist followed up his lightning strokes with a torrent of runs. Cuts, pulls and drives literally drove the packed stands crazy. But he fell on the edge of another century, trying to drive Kartik. His 95 came in just 72 deliveries.
Just a couple of overs earlier, Pathan gave India the glimmer of hope, if not of victory, with two wickets off two successive balls. Andrew Symonds calmly left the hat-trick delivery but the final twist to the story hadn't unfolded.
- BOBBILLI VIJAY KUMAR