After losing the Hyderabad ODI against the host side India, the Australian captain Aaron Finch feels that they were 20-30 runs short from the victory. However, he praised the Australian bowlers for their fighting effort to defend the low par total.
As they won the earlier two-match T20I series in this tour by the 2-0 margin, the Australian side started the match full of confidence. After winning the toss, Aussie captain Aaron Finch decided to bat first.
Playing his 100th ODI match, Aaron Finch was dismissed for a duck in the second over of the game. However, another opener Usman Khawaja and the no.3 batsman Marcus Stoinis handled the early situation very well. They had an 87-run partnership for the second wicket.
But once that partnership was broken, Australia lost their wickets at regular intervals. Just before the 40th over, Australia was struggling on 173/6. However, Alex Carey and Nathan Coulter-Nile’s 62-run partnership for the seventh-wicket helped the side to reach the much-respected first innings total.
At the end of 50 overs, Australia scored 236/7. Opener Usman Khawaja scored 50 off 76 balls while Glenn Maxwell played the 40-run knock off 51 balls. Alex Carey remained not out on 36 runs while Nathan Coulter-Nile played the crucial innings of 28 runs.
The brief story of India’s successful chasing
In the second innings, Nathan Coulter-Nile dismissed the Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan for a golden duck. At next, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli provided a crucial 76-run partnership for the second wicket.
However, in the middle stage, India was under pressure when they were battling on 99/4. From that situation, MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav calmly guided the home side to the comfortable six wickets victory. They had the unbroken 141 runs partnership for the fifth wicket while India reached the target in 48.2 overs.
MS Dhoni remained not out on 59 runs off 72 balls. Meanwhile, the Player of the Match Kedar Jadhav scored an unbeaten 81 runs off 87 balls (nine boundaries and only over-boundary).
Aaron Finch’s comments in the post-match presentation ceremony
After the match, Aaron Finch claimed that they were around 20-30 runs short. However, he didn’t forget to praise his bowlers who did enough hard work in this match.
In the post-match presentation ceremony, Aaron Finch said, “We were about 20 or 30 short. Especially after we lost one wicket, we had to take it deeper. But our bowlers did well, continued taking wickets, and they were really good. If you have a guy go on and get 80, and that’s what you are trying to do. Just a bit more attention to detail. We tried our best with the ball. I think our quicks are most effective when they are banging the wicket. There were a few plays-and-misses, but that happens against a high-quality side.”
India and Australia will play the second ODI of the series on Tuesday (5 March) at Nagpur.