India third time unlucky as Australia clinch series 3-0

ByArun S Kaimal,SportsCafe Editor

01/17/2016

For the third time in row, a century for India went in vain as Glen Maxwell’s 96 off 83 balls led Australia to a three-wicket win against India in the third ODI to take an unassailable lead in the five match ODI series at the MCG on Sunday.

Brief Scores: India 295/6 in 50 overs (Kohli 117(117), Dhawan 68(91), Rahane 50(55), Hastings 4/58) lost to Australia 296/7 in 48.5 overs (Maxwell 96(83), Shaun Marsh 62(73), Jadeja 2/49, Ishant 2/53) by three wickets

After losing the first two ODIs in similar fashion, India’s match against the Aussies at MCG almost followed a similar pattern as the predecessors. India repeated their formula inch perfectly, losing an opener early in the innings, a hundred-run partnership for the second wicket, and a century – this time the hero was Virat Kohli - as India ended their innings with a score close to 300.

Australia came out to chase 296, in search of the highest run chase at the MCG, and once again the match followed the script. Debutant Gurkeerat Singh’s butter fingers gifted Aaron Finch a life, just like his partner Shaun Marsh had at the Gabba. However, Finch was not so fortunate after a few moments when he edged a ball outside the off-stump from Umesh Yadav into Dhoni’s gloves. Captain Smith came in and took over his favourite role of frustrating the Indians.

Unlike the first two matches, the spinners stood up for India – or more precisely – Jadeja showed up in the middle overs. In his first over into the attack, the left armer removed the Aussie captain for 41 with a flighted delivery outside the off-stump to graze Smith’s bat and go to Rahane at first slip to end the 64-run partnership. The other thorn in India’s flesh, George Bailey also followed his captain soon as Dhoni delivered a lightning-fast stumping after Jadeja beat the batsman with a beautiful ball outside the off stump.

The march to the Aussie dressing room continued with Ishant Sharma sending an edge from Shaun Marsh to Dhoni’s gloves to end the opener’s 62-run knock. India looked set for a win with Australia at 215/6 as Mitchell Marsh and Matthew Wade followed their teammates to the dressing room in quick succession. However, Glen Maxwell had other plans. The right hander along with James Faulkner smashed the Indians all around the park to get the asking rate to a run-a-ball. With the Indians gifting them freebies by bowling no-balls and wide deliveries, the Aussies strolled to their third victory of the series with seven balls remaining in the match. But, Maxwell was unable to convert his 96 into a hundred after falling at the last hurdle to Umesh.

India’s inability to push up their scoring rate in the middle overs once again haunted them as the hosts, even after losing six wickets, only needed seven runs per over in the last ten. With the run rate in control, Maxwell and Faulkner coasted to victory with no pressure from the scoring board.

At the start of play, India was put into bat by Australia after winning the toss. The Men in Blue made drastic changes to their XI by handing out debuts to Gurkeerat Singh and Rishi Dhawan at the expense of Manish Pandey and R Ashwin. On the other hand, Australia brought back Mitchell Marsh back into the side with Joel Paris making the way for him.

India’s innings got off to a terrible start losing in-form Rohit Sharma for six in the fifth over. After scoring consecutive centuries, the Mumbai cricketer tried to guide a ball from Kane Richardson to third man, only to dab it into the hands of Matthew Wade behind the wicket. Dhawan and Kohli started slowly by collecting singles and twos to take the Indian innings forward. As the first ten overs finished, Kohli became the quickest-ever to reach 7,000 ODI runs breaking AB de Villiers’ record.

The Men in Blue only scored four an over for the next ten with Dhawan struggling to find his timing. However, with Smith introducing Maxwell, the duo upped the scoring rate by adding 42 runs in the next six overs. Dhawan, who played 54 dot balls in his 68-run innings off 91 balls, finally perished after exposing his stumps to a full-length delivery from John Hastings ending the 119-run partnership.

Joined by Rahane at the other end, Kohli continued the momentum he picked after the 20th over by taking the attack to the bowlers on his way to his 24th ODI hundred. A flick towards midwicket for a four and a dab behind square for a single off consecutive balls was enough for the mercurial batsman to showcase his trademark celebration of jumping in the air and pumping his fist to become the fastest batsman to twenty four ODI hundreds.

With India needing quick runs in the last ten, Rahane’s attempts to accelerate brought his downfall with the Mumbai cricketer falling for 50 off 55 balls to a brilliant team catch at the long leg boundary from Smith and Maxwell. Kohli followed his partner shortly, ending his brilliant run-a-ball 117-run innings smashing the ball straight at Bailey to gift Hastings his third wicket of the match. For the third time in the series, India’s acceleration came a little too late as they scored 88 runs in the last ten overs losing four wickets to finish the innings at 295/6.

India third time unlucky as Australia clinch series 3-0

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