It is time for the Indians to strike hard

The Indians are trying their best to catch up with the Australians at the top but are just not there. Whatever they do the Aussies do better with the result that while the ODI series is locked at two matches, all at roughly the halfway mark, the home team's hopes of dislodging the visitors from the top spot in the rankings seem to getting dimmer with every match.

The Indians have been performing admirably in the series even if it is against an Aussie side not exactly at full strength. There are certain positives about the batting, bowling and fielding for which MS Dhoni and his men can justifiably be proud. The emphatic victory at Nagpur followed by a notable win against the odds at New Delhi has kept them in the hunt for a series triumph.

But the narrow defeat at Baroda and the unexpected setback at Mohali has meant that they are back to square one going into the fifth game of the seven match series. In pure arithmetic, India will have to win all three matches if they are to topple the Aussies and to put it in simple terms this seems most unlikely despite the fact that the Aussie injury list is growing by the day.

Peter Siddle who has impressed during the series is the latest casualty and with the Indians expected to be back at full strength at Hyderabad with the return of Gautam Gambhir, it is time for the  Indians to strike hard.

Resilience however is a quality that the Aussies possess in abundance. They are the game's greatest fighters - a quality that generations of cricket followers have known and admired. Even when they have gone through lean periods they have held their own with weak squads thanks to their commendable never say die attitude.

Their inherent hunger for success - typified by the title of one of Steve Waugh's books 'Never Satisfied' - has seen them come back from hopeless positions to register unexpected victories and Mohali was but the latest in a long line of such triumphs.

With a limp attack and with their pace spearhead Mitchell Johnson having an off day they still managed to successfully defend a total of 250 which to be candid seemed quite inadequate on a good batting surface.

But there is always an Aussie or two who rise to the occasion and on Monday it was the duo of Doug Bollinger playing only his fifth ODI and Shane Watson who deservedly won  the man of the match award who came good when it mattered most.

It must have been galling for the Indians to lose a match which they seemed to have in their grasp. But even in the face of a modest target a team will find things difficult when the highest individual score is 40 and the highest partnership is 40. For once the Indians didn't miss much in the field symbolized by four run outs but here again the Aussies matched them with Ricky Ponting running out Yuvraj Singh and Ravindra Jadeja - crucial dismissals both.

All is not lost for the Indians. If the dream of becoming the numero uno team looks like Mission Impossible they can at least strive to win the series. They have produced much good cricket and to me symbolizing this was the Dhoni - Yuvraj partnership at the Kotla.

On a pitch not conducive to strokeplay and with the team in an unenviable position the two displayed a great deal of maturity in first handling the grim situation and then taking India to a comfortable victory to break the trend in the series which has seen the side batting first win on three of four occasions.

At full strength the Indians are a match for Ponting and his men. There is nothing radically wrong with Dhoni and his squad and about the only change, I would like to see is Amit Mishra in the playing eleven at the expense of Ishant Sharma who can certainly do with some rest.

As events in the series have proved the Aussies have shown a general vulnerability against the turning ball and it would be better to attack them with Indian cricket's traditional strength - spin bowling.

The Indians can match the Aussies in batting, bowling and fielding but as I said the Aussies make up for their injury problems and adverse situations with certain resilient qualities that are beyond other teams.