Visitors Australia kept the 5 match series against India alive after registering a comprehensive 32 runs victory to make the scoreline 2-1 in favour of the home team. The victory was built around a couple of great knocks by Usman Khawaja and Aaron Finch. Adam Zampa also bowled brilliantly and bagged 3 important wickets. He conceded 70 runs but it was a great effort bagging three crucial wickets. For India, Vira Kohli top scored with a magical 123 of 95 deliveries.
It was Virat Kohli who won the toss and put the visitors in. The Australian openers Aaron Finch and Usman Khawaja began quite brilliantly and shared a sensational 193 runs stand in 32 overs. It was high-class batting from both the batters and the Indian fielders didn’t really help. The home team has been exceptional in the field in the recent past. However, today was one such day when India had several lapses in the field.
Finch who had been woefully out of touch coming into the series looked in great touch. It would be good signs for Australia going into the 2019 World Cup. It was Kuldeep Yadav, the familiar man who gave India the maiden breakthrough. Given the start Australia had, they would have hoped to get somewhere close to the 350 mark.
However, the Indian bowlers made a great comeback in the final few overs and restricted them to 312. Kuldeep Yadav despite conceding 64 runs in his quota of 10 overs bagged 3 wickets and was yet again the most successful Indian bowler.
The home team began in the worst possible manner and lost the wickets of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan in quick succession. MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli stitched together a good partnership. Adam Zampa gave Australia the important breakthrough of MS Dhoni. Despite those early wickets, Virat Kohli and Kedar Jadhav kept India in the match with sensible batting.
Virat Kohli went onto smash his 41st ODI century and kept India in the match till the last phase of the match. After smashing Zampa for a couple of consecutive boundaries, Zampa got rid of Kohli with a good delivery. From there on it was always going to be difficult for India. In the end, the target was way too much and they eventually fell short by 32 runs.
Virat Kohli spoke at length in the post-match presentation and reflected on what went wrong for India in the 2nd encounter. Here is what he said at the presentation ceremony
We were especially the way we pulled things back in the first innings. With the way Australia was going, we thought we would have been chasing 350+. I was told dew would come in in the evening, but that didn’t happen and I got that wrong. The wicket wasn’t improving at all and wasn’t getting easy for batting. They kept pitching the ball in the good areas, then I got out and Vijay got out and that’s about it. We are a team that has taken a lot of pride in our cricket. We don’t want to see anymore collapses.
In terms of hitting the ball well, it was one of my finest hundreds. I was feeling well since ball one. I was really disappointed with the way I got out. Yeah we will have a few changes in the next couple of games. A little hiccup in the middle, but we will regroup and come back strongly.