The short-pitch virus afflicted S Sreesanth as well, and his second spell was emblematic of an infuriatingly inconsistent display. First he got hammered for four after dropping short to Ricky Ponting, merely the best player of the pull shot on the planet. Then he adjusted his length and beat him with a beauty that left the bat. The next one was even better, taking the outside edge on its way to slip. Sadly for India, the entire sequence could have been written around the words 'bolted', 'horse' and 'stable'.

Shane Watson plays his domestic cricket at the Gabba and bowling short to him is a no-brainer © AFP

It was all the more disappointing to watch because the batsmen had done a sterling job on a pitch where strokeplay was never easy. Virender Sehwag set the tone with an innings that owed as much to luck - a dropped catch, and an inside edge that flew past the stumps, not to mention numerous statuesque swishes - as it did to swashbuckling drives through the off side.

It didn't help that he had to do it all on his own early on, with Tendulkar appearing incredibly out of sorts. Once a pillager of Australian attacks, his recent woes against them are perhaps indicative of slowing reflexes. He was never comfortable, wearing one on the helmet from Nathan Bracken's medium pace, and his exit for 10 took his aggregate from the last six outings against Australia to 66 runs. When you consider that he had a century, four 50s and a 45 in the six innings prior to that, it's easy to see why some critics speak of a decline against quality pace bowling.

It was left to Rahul Dravid to show the way instead, and he took a ball less than Sehwag for his half-century, despite never once chancing his arm. Mohammad Kaif played his part in a valuable 60-run partnership, and there were vital late interventions from Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Irfan Pathan. Those who considered it 30 runs short could probably argue that sending Pathan ahead of Raina could have made the difference, but there is no discounting the quality of the bowling. Brett Lee was carted around in his first two spells, but his third was fast bowling at its finest - fast, accurate and with more than a hint of movement.

In the final analysis, the rawness of India's pace resources was their undoing. Between them, Pathan, Munaf and Sreesanth can point to 99 ODI caps, while Lee alone has 140 stashed away. In this kind of match, with everything at stake, that chasm was far too wide to bridge.

On this wicket the Indian error was their failure to realise that Australia would get close to 300 and to bat carefully in the last fifteen overs. Just as the Windies found with England, you must accelerate from a great start and impose yourself on the oppossition with a total near 300.

The bowlers were never going to contain Australia on this pitch.

Indian player should better be doing ad Films, Commercial, cat walks and not playing cricket any more. Let other players waiting get their chance to prove. India shine only when 1 or 2 players r in form otherwise all 11 players together cannot win match for india.

let them all retire and play cricket with their wife & childrens at home.

I completely agree with your comments. I guess Indian bowlers were carried away by what they saw with South Africa & NZ bolwers. They were bowling shortpitched stuff and were successful. But what they missed was the teams against which they used them were not so good playing them.

Here we have a bunch of inexperienced medium pacers who were trying to bounce out austrailians. I felt sorry for Dravid. You cannot set a field when your bolwers bowl all over the park.

It was very pathetic to see the Indian pace bowlers in action. The Pakistan bowlers who are from the same continents are much taller & stronger then the Indians. Why? With a population of India, why cant they produce at least 5 bowlers like Kapil Dev? BCCI with all the money must do more to develop big, stroner & better bowlers & batsman for the future. With the World Cup next year, will India make it at least to the semi finals? May God Bless.

Dear Sir,

It seems that our bowlers need rejuvenation & need some BREAK.........

Your analysis is spot on.
The Indian fast bowlers, bowled far too short to Aussie openers who relish short pitch bowling.
I wonder why the senior who were on the field could not correct the malady after a couple of overs and also the experinece Indian Aussie coach or did he not want to do it as he is still has an Aussie passport, but I doubt it, they are make pride in their profession

A thoughtful and accurate assessment of the cricket played in this match. I find it quite astonishing that bowlers (and batsmen) with the necessary talent to play at international level seem all too often to leave their brains in the pavilion. It is said that the only thing we learn from experience is that we don't learn from experience and it is only too clearly demonstrated almost daily on the cricket field. Rather than a few minutes spent throwing a ball around immediately prior to the start of play, it might be a good idea for the various coaches to spend a few minutes briefing players who are apparently unable to think for themselves.

Indian Cricket Players are Hero's in Advertisements but when reality (in cricket)comes they are (cricket) toys (no cricket brain at all). They can't do anything, we are wasting our time and money for sponsoring to those toys. Even if you appoint Bradman as Indian Coach, Indian cricket toys will loose..

Partha

India and Pakistan are good to play against each other. The championship is won if they win against each other. What is the use of having such a strong batting team with the likes of Sachin's, Dravid's and Sehwag's who cannot counter under home conditions. The answer for all failures are "New Lesson" or "New Experiment Formula". You guys are professionls.It is time for them to apply their experience with individual effort than team effort. We will tolerate till World Cup result.

Hei

All Asian country is out for ICC championship Cup and our last hope India gone out too. I think India should kick out their coach Greg Chappel from their team and recruit new coach as soon as they can and it will be good for india as well as for Asia.

Good analysis and very valid comments regarding the ineptness of our pace attack. I do not think inexperience can be cited as a reason, just check out figures of McGrath or Lee when they were just 20 or 30 ODIs old. Experience does not matter if you cannot apply thought on a consistent basis - Agarkar for all his 170+ ODIs (and counting) is a glorious example for consistently bowling boundary balls over after over. Aggression of the wrong kind at the wrong moment will cost a bowler and his team very dear - remember Zaheer Khan 2003 in World Cup final?

thanks for a nice article! but, what next? do we continue with the same stock? do we discord some in the hope that the players show little more of commonsense and effort when they play?it is time Dravid became more pro-active in the field instead of cutting a sorry figure by looking out of sorts and silent most of the time.someone must inject the fighting spirit.

India didn't make very good use of the powerplays and the slog overs. They waited far too long to accelerate and we ended up atleast 30-40 runs short of descent score. Not that 250 wasn't enough to put pressure back on Australia, but with that kind of bowling display we needed 320+

I feel the single most telling point for India losing so many ODI's is Pathan;s inability to take those early wickets. It was usual for him to strike always in the first one or two overs and that invariably put the pressure on the opposition.

No other bowler including Munaf or Sreesanth has been able to match him in this regard.