India vs Australia | Virat was difference in the game, says Aaron Finch

Australia looked to have taken the right decision of fielding first after winning the toss as Indian batsmen struggled from the very first ball. Rohit Sharma threw his wicket on the sixth ball without adding any run to the scoreboard and Kohli was forced to come in early to steady the ship with out of form Shikhar Dhawan.

The southpaw, despite looking stable, was dismissed in the ninth over with Ambati Rayudu also following suit. India were reduced to 75/3 in the 17th over and Kohli needed a partnership. Vijay Shankar helped his cause well by forging a 81-run stand for the fifth wicket before falling prey to an unfortunate run-out. Kohli had already reached his half-century by then and had to keep going.

MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav fell almost instantly and although Ravindra Jadeja was of some help in the lower order, it was mostly Kohli who took India to a respectable total of 250. He scored a necessary slow innings of 116 runs off 120 balls that included only ten boundaries. All the singles in the heat of Nagpur had taken a toll on Kohli and it was reflected in the loose shot that eventually brought an end to his innings.

However, Australia skipper Finch was all praise for the India captain’s knock stating that it was the biggest difference on the day. “Virat was the difference in the game. If one of our top order got 80-100, we would have probably won the game," said Finch after the match, reported ESPNCricinfo.

Australia had a pretty easy task ahead of them of chasing 251 and they did considerably well to forge an opening partnership of 83 before Finch was dismissed. Though Shaun Marsh and Glenn Maxwell couldn’t contribute much, Peter Handscomb and Marcus Stoinis did extremely well under pressure to take the team on the verge of victory. 

Stoinis was the only batsman remaining for the visitors in the last few overs and he had to calculate well about who he had to take on and who to see off. The all-rounder did really well in executing that as he had seen off Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami that left him with Vijay Shankar in the last over with only 11 runs remaining.

To Australia’s misfortune, the batsman was out on the very first ball but Finch, however, stood by his teammate and justified his approach.

"It was one of those games where you take it as deep as you can and hope you can get over the line. Marcus Stoinis played a brilliant innings. The game ebbed and flowed the whole day. We had momentum, gave it back to them, and in the end they got over the line,” said Finch. 

“If Stoin takes a risk early on and gets out, we have no chance at all, so his approach was right. Was okay to get a start today, but starts don't win games. We got 30s and 40s, they got a hundred, and that was the difference,” he added.