Acts of callousness degrade India-Australia series
04-Nov-2013
Whichever side you sit on, the India-Australia ODI series will be remembered long for some truly inspired chases, big totals being made to look a mockery, and 209 (in reference to Rohit Sharma's ODI double century in Bangalore). But there was an ugly side to the affair as well, as Mumbai Mirror's Sriram Veera explains. Confrontations between Indian batsmen and Australia bowlers continued to run their course, with Shikhar Dhawan's rather 'graceless' mimicry of Australian allrounder Shane Watson crossing the line.
When he (Watson) eventually came out to bat down the order, after Faulkner in fact, in the 23rd over, he couldn't use the runner as the laws say so. He drove his first delivery to extra cover where Dhawan stopped the ball before the moment turned ugly. Dhawan hobbled across, mocking the limping Watson. The long-running verbal slinging between the two players had spilled into gracelessness. Later, Bailey couldn't help himself from having a quiet go at Dhawan, which reveals the ever-present tensions between the two teams. "Sometimes the art of winning is as hard to learn as the art of losing," Bailey said when asked about Dhawan.