The 2007–08 edition of the Commonwealth Bank Series was a One Day International cricket tournament held in Australia. The Commonwealth Bank Series is an annual event involving the national teams of Australia, India and Sri Lanka. India won the event with a 2–0 sweep of the hosts in the final series.
The first two matches of the series were shaping up for excellent contests after their first innings. However heavy rain in Brisbane, caused by a cyclone in the Pacific Ocean, saw both of those matches abandoned. Australia was the first to win a match in the series after a Sri Lankan collapse in game 3.
Australia was the best team during the regular matches, taking 4 wins with bonus points. However India defeated Australia 2–0 in the best of 3 final series to win the tournament. This was the second time in a row that Australia lost their home tri-nations' series. In the previous year they had lost to England. Fast bowler Nathan Bracken was the leading wicket taker in the tournament with 21 wickets and was named Player of the Series. Australian wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist and left-arm spinner Brad Hogg retired from One Day International after the second final.
Squads + SquadsAustralia Squad – 31 January 2008India Squad – 20 January 2008Sri Lanka Squad – 14 January 2008 Ricky Ponting (c) MS Dhoni (c & wk) Mahela Jayawardene (c) Adam Gilchrist (wk) Sachin Tendulkar Kumar Sangakkara (wk) Nathan Bracken Yuvraj Singh Ishara Amerasinghe Stuart Clark Virender Sehwag Tillakaratne Dilshan Michael Clarke Dinesh Karthik Sanath Jayasuriya Brad Haddin Robin Uthappa Chamara Kapugedera Matthew Hayden Gautam Gambhir Nuwan Kulasekara Brad Hogg Suresh Raina Farveez Maharoof James Hopes Rohit Sharma Lasith Malinga Michael Hussey Irfan Pathan Muttiah Muralitharan Mitchell Johnson Praveen Kumar Dilruwan Perera Brett Lee Munaf Patel Chamara Silva Andrew Symonds Ishant Sharma Upul Tharanga Ashley Noffke Sreesanth Chaminda Vaas Adam Voges Harbhajan Singh Chanaka Welegedara Piyush Chawla Manoj Tiwary Note: Ashley Noffke and Adam Voges were standby players.
Full statistics of the tri-series
Group stage table
Group stage matches
1st match: Australia v India
India won the toss and elected to bat on what was thought to be a bowlers pitch due to earlier rain and high chance of further showers. Sehwag was bowled early by Bracken off an inside edge. Tendulkar was forced onto the back foot by Lee bowling short, and accidentally hit the stumps with his back foot to be out hit wicket, putting India at 2/26 after 6.3 overs. Gambhir and Rohit Sharma then combined for 65 runs taking advantage of wide and short bowling from debutant Ashley Noffke. Gambhir was dropped twice in the slips off Johnson, but Johnson eventually got him LBW which triggered a middle order collapse. Sharma fine edged Lee through to Gilchrist. Next to go was Tiwary who struggled against the pace of Lee and was clean bowled by a yorker. Uthappa then skied a short ball from Noffke and was caught by Clarke at point. India had lost 4 wickets for just 11 runs, collapsing from 2/92 to 6/102 after 26.1 overs. Dhoni and Pathan tightened up, determined to make sure India bat out the innings and post a competitive score. Rain then stopped the play with India at 6/128 after 36 overs.
Play resumed over an hour later, with the match reduced by 5 overs per innings. The Indian batters came out firing, scoring boundaries. Pathan appeared to edge through to Gilchrist but the umpire was unmoved. Ponting then ran out Pathan with a throw from cover leaving India at 7/147 after 38.6 overs. Harbhajan Singh belted 27 from 18 balls, mainly off Bracken, before skying to point off the toe of the bat. Dhoni fell just a few balls previously, trying to hit over cover. Brett Lee claiming both wickets for a 5 wicket haul. Sreesanth tried to steal a third run off the last ball after a miss-field but was easily run-out. India all out for 194 off the full 45 overs. Brett Lee finished with 5 for 29 off 9 overs. Australia was set 196 runs to win via D/L method (since India had batted 36 overs while pacing for 50 overs).
Further rain during the break reduced Australia's innings to 43 overs, with a revised target of 192. Hopes smashed four 4's off the 3rd over (bowled by Pathan) before Gilchrist gloved a hook shot to the keeper. He walked off, without even looking at the umpire who had shaken his head to dismiss the appeal. Yet more rain arrived with the score 1/33 after 4.0 overs. Australia's innings was reduced to 22 overs with the target set to 141 and play resumed again, although everyone expected more rain soon which would cause the match to be abandoned. Hopes was clean bowled by Ishant Sharma and then Ponting edged Sreesanth to 2nd slip, Australia losing 3 for 6 runs to be 3/39 after just 5.2 overs. The rain arrived after 7.2 overs with the score 3/51. With rain falling and not enough time remaining to complete the minimum 20 overs, the match was abandoned as a draw. Both teams were awarded 2 points-a-piece.
2nd match: India v Sri Lanka
India won the toss and elected to bat first, as rain was expected to hit later in the day. Yuvraj Singh was back in Indian side, after missing the first match due to an injury. The openers made a solid start putting on 68 runs in 14.3 overs before Tendulkar was bowled by Malinga. Sehwag was then taken by Amerasinghe. This was followed by the quick loss of both Yuvraj Singh and Rohit Sharma, both to Muralitharan, leaving India in trouble at 4/83 after 20.5 overs. Gambhir and Dhoni then played a solid and defensive game for the next twenty overs before they opened up in the last 10 overs scoring over 100 runs. The hallmark of their partnership was their aggressive running between the wickets. Gambhir brought up his run-a-ball century in just the last over. Vass ended up going for an expensive 0/72 from his ten overs. India finished the innings 4/267 just as rain started to fall. The rain got heavier during the break and continued all night, forcing the match to be abandoned.
3rd match: Australia v Sri Lanka
Ponting won the toss and elected to bat. Hayden returned from injury to open, he was the first to fall, holing Amerasinghe straight to cover, after a 64 run opening partnership from 79 balls. Ponting edged Vaas to first slip to be out for just 9 runs. Clarke then combined with Gilchrist, who scored a half century before being trapped LBW by Kapugedera. Symonds smashed straight to cover and was taken off Vaas, then Hussey hit straight to point and was also caught. However the wickets only came slowly with Australia at 5–190 after 41.4 overs. Clarke and Hopes finished the innings well after it looked like Australia could stumble to a lower score. Clarke finished not out on 77 from 86 balls, while Hopes belted 34 from 29 balls to help boost Australia to 6/253 from the full 50 overs. Vaas was the best bowler with 2/34 from 10 overs, Amerasinghe also took 2 wickets, but for 66 runs. Australia played tight against Muralitharan, who ended on up 0/42, he was later injured in the field when a ball bounced off his hands and smashed into his teeth.
Jayasuriya was first to go for Sri Lanka, dragging Lee onto his stumps. Tharanga fell without improving the score when he edged Bracken to the keeper, Sri Lanka 2–18 from 5.1 overs. Sangakkara came out firing scoring an impressive 42 from just 41 balls before being caught LBW by Bracken. Jayawardene had fallen just before while edging Johnson to the keeper. Silva struggled to score and eventually edged a flipper from Hogg to the keeper managing just 7 runs from 32 balls. Dilshan played wild shots, smashing a huge six before skying a Bracken ball to mid-off. Kapugedera had also edged Bracken to Hayden at first slip, leaving Sri Lanka in tatters at 7/93 after 23.5 overs. Malinga was run-out is unusual circumstances, he grounded the bat behind the crease, but then dropped his bat. The ball hit then stumps before he grounded his feet behind the crease and after he dropped the bat. Ponting then ran-out Vaas after a mix-up with Murali. Murali then went slogging, smashing a six down the ground before being caught at mid-on. Sri Lanka all out for just 125 runs after 31.3 overs. The 128 runs victory was large enough for Australia to earn a series bonus point. Bracken took 5/47. Johnson, Hopes and Hogg all played well, conceding just 9, 15 and 17 runs from 5 or 6 overs each.
4th match: Australia v India
Ponting won the toss and immediately elected to bat. Gilchrist was incorrectly given out LBW off Sreesanth on just the 4th ball of the day after getting an inside edge onto his pads. Hayden then smashed 25 from 21 balls before being caught at slip, leaving Australia at 2/37 after 5.2 overs. He had earlier edged over slips twice. Ponting edged a defensive bat to slip, then Clarke was caught at short mid wicket after walking across his stumps. Symonds also nicked a ball, to be caught brilliantly by wicketkeeper Dhoni, then Haddin was stumped from a wide delivery down leg side. Australia sunk to 6/92 after 25.5 overs with the tail now exposed. Lee survived 35 balls to support Hussey, but eventually edged Pathan to first slip. Johnson, Bracken and Clark were cleaned up for just 8 runs. This left Hussey stranded on 65 not out. Australia all out for just 159 runs after 43.1 overs. Sharma took 4/38 and Sreesanth took 3/31, both from 9 overs.
Australia needed wickets early, but it was Tendulkar scoring early boundaries to get India away to a great run a ball start. Bracken appeared to take Sehwag plumbed LBW on the replays, but it was given not out. A couple of balls later Bracken took Sehwag LBW again and was given out, despite replays showing it would have bounced well over the stumps. The bad umpiring continued when Tendulkar edged through to Gilchrist, but was given not out. Yet another umpiring mistake was made just a couple of balls later when Pathan was given out LBW, replays showing he inside edged, leaving India at 2–54 after 11.2 overs. Next Gambhir, Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh were all caught, India looking shaky at 5–102 are 28.3 overs. Australia's bowling was tight (Clark 1/26 from 10, Johnson 2/24 from 10), but the job of defending such a meager target proved too much. Rohit Sharma (39 from 61) and Dhoni (17 from 54) combined well for a great winning partnership under a lot of pressure. India reached home with 5 wickets and 25 balls to spare.
5th match: India v Sri Lanka
Early rain prevented the start of play, and the match was reduced to 29 overs per side when Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to put India in to bat. After a run-a-ball start, both Sehwag and Tendulkar were caught at third man while playing aggressive shots, India 2/49 after 8.2 overs. Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir combined for 64 runs off 70 balls, before Gambhir was run out backing up. Sharma and Dhoni then teamed up for an impressive 68 from just 46 balls before Dhoni was also run out, India 4–181 off 27.4 overs. Yuvraj Singh chipped a ball to extra cover and India finished up 5/195 after the full 29 overs. Maharoof was the only bowler to go for less than 1 run per ball achieving 1/33 from 6 overs. Malinga was the most expensive going for 45 runs from 6 overs.
Jayasuriya got Sri Lanka away to an explosive start, smashing 2 sixes in the 3rd over off Sreesanth. 22 runs were scored in that over alone. Jayasuriya reached 27 runs from just 12 balls before gloving a pull shot to the keeper, Sri Lanka 1/45 after just 3.5 overs. Sangakkara was caught off Harbhajan Singh a few overs later. Dilshan (63* runs from 59 balls) and Jayawardene (36* from 35 balls) combined for an 85-run partnership to steer Sri Lanka to a comfortable 8 wicket victory with 2 overs to spare. Sreesanth ended up going for 48 runs off just 18 deliveries. Singh was the only bowler to go for under a run a ball taking 1/15 from 4 overs. Sri Lanka scored at more than 8 runs per over and lost just two wickets in completing their first victory of the series.