It has been yet another case of so near yet so far for India in the ODI series against Australia.
It has been yet another case of so near yet so far for India in the ODI series against Australia. They have squandered a 2-1 adavantage to allow the Aussies to take an unassailable 4-2 lead. There are three more instances in this decade of India failing to win a home bilateral ODI series comprising five or more matches after taking a lead during the course of the rubber. The full details are:
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vs Australia (leads 2-1, loses 2-3) in 2000-01: The five-match ODI series was contested after the well known "final frontier" Test series. It resulted in an alternate victory for India and Australia before the crunch game at Margao. After VVS Laxman scored a solid ton, it was left to Michael Bevan to guide the visitors to a four-wicket win. The match was marred by circulation of bogus tickets which resulted in many genuine ticket holders being denied entry. Matthew Hayden who aggregated 303 runs was adjudged Man of the Series.
vs England (leads 3-1, drew 3-3) in 2001-02: Few gave the English team any hope in the six-match series and when Indian openers guided them to an eight-wicket triumph at Kanpur to take a 3-1 lead, a thrashing was on the cards. But England held their nerve, won the last two games by a whisker and Andrew Flintoff topped it with a shirt-off display at the Wankhede Stadium. For India, a drawn series felt more like defeat.
vs Pakistan (leads 2-0, loses 2-4) in 2004-05: India started off the six-match series in a grand fashion, winning the first two matches with overwhelming ease. But a succession of fine individual performances by Naved-ul-Hasan (6-27), Inzamam (60 not out), Afridi (102) and Malik (72) helped Pakistan to emerge victorious in the last four matches to clinch the series 4-2.
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