The spinners will hope for an encore after they proved difficult to negotiate in the first ODI — Ravindra Jadeja (9-0-39-1) and Nathan Hauritz (9-1-34-1) returning with best figures on Sunday. As was the case at Vadodara, in Nagpur too the pacers will be pushed around while the spinners can expect to walk with a swagger.

Before the tour started, Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting had said how his batsmen played the Indian spinners during the middle-overs would hold the key to the series. The score of 292 and Harbhajan Singh’s spell of 10-0-57-1 made coach Tim Nielsen say, “They are quality spinners. We played them pretty well.”

In the opening match, the Aussies had come out with a well-thought plan to counter the Indian spinners. During the powerplays early in the innings, they took their chances but as the ball got older, they were circumspect. According to Nielsen, the phase that Ponting spoke about was between the 26 to 34 overs — the period before the ball change. “As the ball gets older, it takes the pace off it and it becomes difficult to score,” he said.

An analysis of Ravindra Jadeja’s bowling figures explains the point. After his first spell of 4-0-29-0, he came into his own — during the 26 to 34 overs — gave just 10 runs in five overs. That was the period where Jadeja tied down the free-flowing Ponting and eventually had him lbw.

Nielsen appreciated Jadeja’s efforts but according to him, and also the scoreboard, the stand-out bowler of the first ODI was off-spinner Nathan Hauritz. “At one stage he bowled 5-1-10-0 and that was outstanding. He really put the brakes on in the middle period. He was the bowler of the match for us,” he said. Hauritz, incidentally, came on for his second spell after the 38th over.

The numbers suggest that the Aussies were able to tackle spin in the middle-overs much better than the Indians. And if India want to settle scores, they will bank on Harbhajan to come up with a better show. “Harbhajan is an experienced bowler. Everybody has off-days so you can say he is going through a patch where he is not bowling at his best,” Indian skipper MS Dhoni said. “He is bowling well but not at his best. But the kind of individual he is, he always bounces back.”