Well, the concept of 7 match series was not encouraged by many player and even Ricky Ponting, the captain of Australian Cricket team,also expressed his concern for the long series.But still, whenever a ODI match is played in India, we can expect a huge crowd and mostly packed stadium.
The similar 7 match series which was played between England and Australia in England this year was pretty much one sided and the Australians won the series very comfortably 6 -1, and after that many felt that the concept of the 7 match series is too long and should be stopped.
On the contrary the India vs Australia series is proving to be the best 7 match series and after 4 ODI, the series is balanced with both the team winning two matches.India had a chance in the 4th ODI , where they could have took a 3-1 lead and must have made easier the chance of winning the series.
They also missed a chance for being No.1 side in this world, as they lost to Australia by 24 runs in the 4th ODI held at Mohali.It was a close contest, but still not having enough wickets in hand cost the match.Credit must goes to Shane Watson for his all round performance, for which he was awarded the man of match.
With 3 match left the series still becomes tough if they go for their final match with 3 wins per side.But whoever take advantage in the 5th ODI has the uper hand, because the team which wins the 5th ODI has a greater chance of winning as they can play without pressure.
While discussing about the 4th ODI, India should have won the match and the turning point of the match was Sachin's wicket, when he was given LBW for the ball which went legside.But, the fact is that there was no partnership developed and all the players fail to deliver a good batting.
Again there was a brave effort from Harbhajan, who is proving to be an all rounder, before he was out caught and bowl by Watson.Everyone expected that the Bhaji - Kumar partnership will accomplish the mission of winning the ODI, which the failed after an extraordinary effort at Vadodara,but once Harbhajan went out, India's chance of winning was out of question, in spite of Praveen's effort who also out after hitting a couple of boundaries.
But the disappointing thing is that Ravindra Jadeja failed to prove again in his batting and this time he wasted many balls before getting run out unnecessarily.There was no chance for a single and pressure has made him to go to the non striker end.I guess he might not be considered for the 5th ODI, even though he is a hand left arm spinner.
We also hope that Gambir will return back to the 5th ODI in Hyderabad.Another interesting thing is that Sehwag produced fire works before getting out and it is good to see Sehwag in good form.So let us expect that India wins the 5th ODI and take a lead in this 7 match series and Sachin also gets his 17,000 runs in Hyderabad.