Feature

Dhawan mocks injured Watson

Plays of the day from the seventh ODI between India and Australia in Bangalore

George Binoy
George Binoy
02-Nov-2013
George Bailey gives vent to his emotions after being foolishly run out  •  BCCI

George Bailey gives vent to his emotions after being foolishly run out  •  BCCI

The unsavoury moment
Shane Watson had gone off the field after bowling five overs because of a hamstring injury, and came out to bat at No. 8 instead of No. 3, when Australia were 138 for 6. Running between the wickets was a problem for him. Watson punched his first ball into the covers, where Dhawan fielded it, and then displayed an astonishing and disappointing lack of respect for an injured sportsman by hobbling exaggeratedly and mocking Watson. It was an ugly moment devoid of grace and an example of the sort of behaviour that needs to be stamped out of the game.
The coincidence
The only time Virat Kohli had been run out for a duck in ODIs - in Bulawayo in 2010 - Rohit Sharma* went on to make 114 in that game. Today, when Kohli drove a ball straight and set off for a run, Rohit first turned around to make his ground in case the bowler fielded it, then he set off for a single after the ball went towards mid-on, and then he decided it was too risky and turned back again. Kohli had kept running and by the time he stopped to sprint back to his crease, the throw had gone to the wicketkeeper who broke the stumps to run him out for a duck. It had been Kohli's call and he made sure Rohit knew that before he walked off. Rohit did better than go on to make a century this time. He made a double.
The brainfade
On commercial aircrafts, the safety instructions tell passengers to place oxygen masks on themselves first in case of low cabin pressure, before assisting the person next to them. George Bailey learned cricket's equivalent of that lesson at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. He had played the ball to deep midwicket and returned for the second run as Yuvraj Singh threw to the bowler's end. Bailey, seeing that the throw was not to the end he was running to, turned around in the middle of the pitch to check if his partner Brad Haddin was okay. Incredibly, he even stopped running. Haddin was okay, because the throw to the bowler was a little wide, but Vinay Kumar collected and fired the ball to Dhoni, catching the onlooking Bailey by surprise and completely out of his crease. Bailey smashed his bat on the ground in anger as he stormed off the ground.
The helicopter
"It's the chinook, it's the blackhawk and it has come loaded with ammunition," said ESPNcricinfo's ball-by-ball commentary for the fifth delivery off the 48th over of India's innings. James Faulkner had delivered a length ball, Dhoni got under it and with a whip-like whirl of his wrists he helicoptered it out of the Chinnaswamy, clearing the roof at long-on.
The contribution
When Clint McKay pushed his tenth delivery, off R Ashwin, through midwicket to get off the mark, it was the first run he had contributed to a ninth-wicket partnership that was already worth 58. Faulkner had blitzed most of the rest, on his way to scoring the fastest ODI century for Australia. When McKay was eventually dismissed in the 45th over, he had contributed 18 to a stand of 115.
*November 2, 7.30pm GMT Rohit Sharma was not the batsman involved when Kohli was run-out for a duck in Bulawayo. This article has been updated to reflect that

George Binoy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo