India vs Australia | All-round Australia script 21-run victory in Bengaluru

Brief scores: Australia 334/5 (David Warner 124, Aaron Finch 94; Umesh Yadav 4/71, Kedar Jadhav 1/38) beat India 313/8 (Kedar Jadhav 67; Rohit Sharma 65; Kane Richardson 3/58, Nathan Coulter-Nile 2/56) by 21 runs.

Aaron Finch and David Warner got Australia off to a great start making most of the rusty Indian opening bowling pair of Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami, who lacked any competitive match practice and bowled wayward deliveries. On a pitch where most of the balls stayed low, the duo were happy enough to stay back and punished the bad deliveries through the infield and didn’t risk too much. However, that didn’t affect the run-rate as the visitors reached a score of 63/0 by the end of the first powerplay. The openers took a special liking towards the spinners and in front of their aggressive mindset, even Axar Patel, who was bowling mostly wicket-to-wicket, failed to have any impact. Yuzvendra Chahal, who tried to go after Finch, failed to put a stop to the carnage and the small boundaries of the Chinnaswamy helped the Aussies exert even more pressure on the bowling attack. Chahal might have had his moment with the second ball of the 23rd over when he beat Finch with his flight, but MS Dhoni missed a stumping which allowed Finch to complete his half-century a couple of overs later. The 148-run stand in the first 25 overs meant that Australia were in a great position to launch a late onslaught to put up a competitive total for the first time in the series.

With the regular bowlers failing to put the visitors under any sort of pressure, the Indian skipper was left with no other option than to introduce Kedar Jadhav into the attack. And the Maharashtra offie didn’t disappoint as he baited Warner to go for the big hit and had him caught by Axar Patel at long-on. By then, however, Warner had already become the first Aussie batsman to score a century in his 100th match. The wicket gave India the perfect impetus and it was Yadav, in his second spell, who made full use it and got rid of Finch, who missed his second century in as many matches by just six runs, and Steve Smith in back to back overs to restrict Australia to 240/3 by the end of the 38th over. The two quick dismissals affected Australia’s scoring rate as Travis Head and Peter Handscomb failed to collect boundaries in the early stages of their partnership, but opened up a bit in the last five overs before Yadav cut short Head’s stay by dismissing him for 29. Handscomb, however, did strike a few blows, in the company of Marcus Stoinis, and helped the visitors reach a competitive total of 334/5. 

Rahane, Rohit help India keep chase on track

Australia finally end their torrid run in away games

Hardik Pandya was promoted to bat at the No.4 position yet again, and this time the situation was not too different to the previous game - to guide India out of the woods. The Baroda youngster didn’t disappoint, scoring runs at a brisk pace in the company of Kedar Jadhav, who came in at the No.5 spot. The duo decided to bide time at the crease while hitting occasional boundaries to keep India in the run chase. However, things didn’t go as planned for India as Zampa, who Pandya tormented in the Chennai ODI, exacted revenge by getting the all-rounder caught by Warner at long-off. But Jadhav kept the good work going and completed his half-century in the 41st over. When the game seemed perfectly poised in favour for both sides, the rain gods decided to make an appearance at the Chinnaswamy, but relented after a short break, when India needed 84 runs off 53 balls. The interval worked as a charm for the visitors as Jadhav failed to pick up a Richardson off-cutter and mistimed the ball to Finch at long off. With the run-rate rising continuously, the Australian bowlers tried to put more pressure on the Indian batsmen by varying the pace on regular occasions. India’s hopes were pinned on MS Dhoni to do unleash the fireworks, but it never arrived and by bowling him out, Richardson made sure that it was the Aussies’ game to lose. Sure enough, the pressure told as Axar Patel failed to score anything more than 5 and that helped the visitors win their first overseas win in 14 matches.