In hindsight, that chat should have taken place before Xavier Doherty was used by Michael Clarke as an obvious bait to dismiss Raina. And the foundations for that set-up were laid sometime before Raina’s six landed amidst the plastic seats of the Adelaide Oval during the 45th over.

Having reduced the target to an achievable 42 runs off 32 balls with that clean strike, Raina, like everyone else on the ground, probably expected the fast bowlers to take over for the remaining five. Clint McKay had three left in the tank, while Starc had two. They were the in-form death over specialists, having held their nerve against Angelo Mathews’s onslaught in Perth on Friday night.

Poor shot selection

Raina smashed McKay for a boundary over extra cover to steal nine runs from the 46th and reduce the target to 31 off 24. He prepared to face Starc as the tall left-arm seamer handed his cap to the umpire, but Clarke replaced him at the last moment for Doherty. And Raina danced into that trap with a big heave, only to be stumped first ball. Dhoni looked bemused at the shot selection, before Ravindra Jadeja did more of the same in the 49th over.

Inspired by Doherty’s strike, Clarke tossed the ball to him for the second last over of the game. And with just 13 to win off 9 balls, he struck as Jadeja tried to clear midwicket with a slog, but found the only man patrolling the deep — Ricky Ponting. Having crossed over, Dhoni blocked the fifth ball and was denied a single off the final ball as the match went into the last over. India were still in with a stiff chance, but for that Dhoni needed to get back the strike. With Ashwin at the other end, it wasn’t going to be easy.

After the miss and the chat, an incorrigible Ashwin tried to clear the next ball over midwicket. But luckily for Dhoni — and India — the mistimed stroke rolled to Ryan Harris in the outfield for a single. Even with Dhoni at the correct end of the pitch, the target of 12 runs from four balls seemed ever-so daunting. Like Doherty taking the pace off the ball to negate big hits, McKay too had bowled several slower balls to cheat the Sri Lankans off a win in their previous game.

Super six

But rather surprisingly, the slower ball was bowled two balls too late. And by then, the Indian captain had squeezed every last vector of the two vastly different speedy bad balls to take India three runs away from victory. The first, a rank half volley, was sent screaming into the long-on stands as Dhoni’s rotating wrists picked McKay’s length early. The second, a beamer, surprised the man batting on 39, but he managed to pull the ball straight into David Warner’s hands at square-leg. Pulling the next to the deep, Dhoni picked up a souvenir stump at the end of his 66-yard sprint, even as a diving Peter Forrest gave his all to save the boundary.

Alas, just like his innings of 66 on debut in the first innings, the dive too went in vain on Sunday. When debutant Forrest and David Hussey (72) were going hammer and tongs at the Indian attack during the middle overs of the first innings, it looked like India’s record of never beating Australia in an ODI on this ground would continue.

Four times India had lost to the hosts here previously, and No.5 was on its way around the time when the 76-run stand between Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma ended in the 33rd over of the chase. Gambhir and Rohit had set the platform for a late onslaught with their highest scores on this tour so far, but both fell in the space of two overs just before the batting powerplay. On 33, Rohit tried to smash a six and was caught inside the circle. On 92, Gambhir was fooled by McKay’s slower ball and was trapped leg before.