Things returned to square one for Australia and Steven Smith as the visitors were decimated at Nagpur in the final ODI of the series. The game was a dead rubber, but it also presented an ideal opportunity for the Australians to not just end the series on a high, but also carry some momentum going into the three-match T20 affair. Fair to say, they did neither with a weak performance against a ruthless opposition.
Once again getting off to a solid start, the Australian openers put up some positive signs indeed, before Aaron Finch was sent back by Hardik Pandya. A fantastic middle overs bowling partnership between Axar Patel and Kedar Jadhav turned the match on its head as the two spinners rattled Australia.
With Axar finishing with three wickets, Australia could only manage 242, a total which turned out to be way too underpar. Rohit Sharma made the chase look like an absolute cakewalk as he scored more than half the runs as he got to the 14th ton of his ODI career.
Post the loss, skipper Steven Smith looked back at the series and reflected his thoughts.
“Probably a 300 wicket,” said Smith. “One of our top four needed to make a big score. Lost wickets in clumps again. Have a few things to look at to try and improve and gain the consistent performances we’re after. Just need to get the right balance of the way we want to play and get consistent performances.”
Admitting that his team was thoroughly outclassed, Smith said:
“We’ve been outplayed and deserve to lose 4-1. A lot of our players have played a lot of cricket in India, can’t use that as an excuse. Still got to try and keep a positive frame of mind. India are a very good cricket team, they’ve got a very good balance. We have six or so days until the 3-match T20I series. We’d like to go home with a trophy.”