The Australian skipper Aaron Finch maintained that India’s pacers left behind their big defeat at Wankhede in the three-match ODI series against India. The top-order batsman Finch said that it was the last couple of overs that cost them the last two games of the series. Finch applauded the exceptional death bowling by the Indian pacers.
After the convincing victory in the series opener, Australia was ready to take down the hosts to win at least one of the two remaining games. However, the Indian batsman gave the visiting bowlers tough time before sealing the deal for the home team.
In the second ODI, the Virat Kohli-led side performed well and set a 341-run target for the visitors. However, it was the pacing magic of Indian bowlers and the top-order of Australia was soon seen crumbling down. It was one of those epic battles where the Australian batsmen were taken down by the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, and Navdeep Saini respectively.
Aaron Finch praises Shami’s yorkers, lauds Saini and Bumrah:
While India won the second game by 36 runs with five balls still in the kitty, Australia lost the final game by seven wickets. The series decider on Sunday was the Magnum Opus of the series. Coming to bat first, Australia batters took some time to set down, but the Indian bowlers had equally an answer to restrict Aussies at 286.
Australia lost two most important wickets in the early overs till Marnus Labuschagne (54) and Steve Smith (131) stitched a healthy partnership. However, the last ten overs for the visiting side proved to be too difficult. Even with Smith on the field, Australia was struggling to score big runs which appeared disheartening for the visitors especially after having a stunning opening game.
“I think probably guys not getting through to those last couple of overs (hurt us),” Finch said at the post-match presser.
The skipper Finch further reasoned the bowling by Indian pacers in the death overs proved to be a big difference. He said that not having a set batsman at the back end of the innings was what he and his team missed.
“I think in the last two games, we have had the bowlers batting for the majority of the last few overs. We saw in Rajkot, the damage that K.L. (Rahul) could do in the back end because he was a settled batter. I think that’s an area we just missed a couple of tricks. Just not having an in batter being in and having faced 20 or 30 balls to get us deeper and get us to the back end,” he added.
On the other hand, the bowling department of India did an exceptional job of delivering an accurate pace and restricted them from scoring runs in the last ten overs of the third game.
While Bumrah kept the Aussie batsmen tied, Shami perfected his yorkers and picked three and four wickets in the second and third ODI respectively. Meanwhile, Navdeep Saini bowled a new of yorkers and didn’t provide any room to the batters, both in Rajkot and in Bengaluru.
“Credit to India, their death bowling in the last few games was exceptional,” Finch said.
“Shami was nailing his yorkers, Saini in the last two games, and Bumrah. In both games, they were exceptional. You can look at where we could have improved, but also you’ve got to give some credit to India. They were unbelievable at the death,” he added.
Nevertheless, India were able to maintain their winning streak in the Australia series and will now go on to try their luck at the New Zealand tour.
The Men in Blue will have five T20Is, three ODI, and two-Test cricket series which will go on for more than a month. The tour will begin on 24th January and culminate on March 4.