IND VS AUS 3rd ODI 2020 SUMMARY

 

Finally we can say, a complete performance by team India. After being bashed one sidedly at Sydney, they fought well at Canberra and resisted a whitewash. Virat won the toss and got third time lucky in this series, and of course opted to bat first on a flat deck of Manuka Oval. India made four changes in their side. Gill, Shardul, Natarajan and Kuldeep replaced Mayank, Shami, Saini and Chahal respectively. Natarajan made his debut for India. While Australia brought Cameron Green the debutant, Ashton Agar and Sean Abbott in place of Warner, Starc and Cummins. Indian openers started nicely especially Gill who looked compact and solid while playing strokes, he scored some good boundaries in the start, and even hit a short ball for six over fine leg. Unfortunately India lost its wicket in the sixth over with Shikhar Dhawan getting out to Sean Abbott. Virat then joined Gill and both batted with a positive intent and ran quick singles and doubles in the middle. They had a 56 run partnership and then Gill got out to Agar while trying to play a sweep. After that Iyer and Rahul departed in quick succession, both of them fell prey to the spinners Iyer to Zampa and Rahul to Agar. The latter got out in a similar fashion like Gill while trying to sweep Ashton who bowled nice tight lines on the stump and got 2 wickets in the match while also being economical. In the process, Virat scored yet another fifty and even broke the record of fastest 12,000 ODI runs that belonged to Sachin Tendulkar. India was left in trouble when Kohli got out to Hazelwood on 63, courtesy DRS which overturned the wrong decision made by umpire Paul Wilson. In came Jadeja at 152-5 and in 33rd over who along with Pandya saved the day for India, They together batted for 18 overs and made a partnership of 150*.Hardik batted with utmost maturity, showed a cool temperament, build his innings and proved everyone that he is not only a power hitter but also a technically solid batsman who can even play an anchor innings for his team. Jadeja was more aggressive in this pair, he started of with caution but accelerated in the last 5 overs and scored boundaries and sixes with ease. Due to the miraculous act by these two, India managed to score a fighting total of 302/5 in 50 overs. Pandya - 92* in 76 and Jadeja - 66* in 50 balls. In the absence of Warner, Labuschagne opened the batting with Finch and was a flop show as Natarajan got the better of him in the 6th over and registered his maiden international wicket for India. After a while Smith, the man in form got out early to Shardul which proved to be a match defining moment for India. Later, Henriques and Finch had a small partnership of 61 runs, The captain scored a fighting half century and found himself lucky as he got dropped twice in his innings by Dhawan and Bumrah. Thakur dismissed Henriques and was followed by Finch who gifted a wicket to Jadeja while trying to hit him over long on. Cameron Green scored 20 odd runs and was departed by Kuldeep and it looked like match was over for Australia as they stood at 158-5 in 30.5 overs. But Alex Carey and Maxwell showed resistance and played counter attacking cricket, they targeted Kuldeep and attempted big shots against him. Their partnership began to haunt India and the equation was brought down to 93 runs of 76 balls. India needed a breakthrough badly and it was provide by a run out. Carey got runout due to a miscommunication and the dangerous looking partnership was broken. Even after that, Maxwell was in full mood to snatch the game from India and batted brilliantly with his new partner Ashton Agar, he cashed crucial boundaries and it started to look like that the pendulum was shifted towards Australia. Cometh the hour, cometh the man....Jasprit Bumrah. When India needed the most from his experience, he delivered with an outstanding yorker which bowled Maxi and even thrashed Australia's dream of whitewashing India. After that, only formalities were left which were completed by our pacers. The Aussies were bowled out for 289 and India won the match by 13 runs. Shardul was the leading wicket taker with 3 wickets, Bumrah and debutant Natarajan got 2-2 wickets, while Jadeja and Kuldeep bagged one wicket each. Australia won the ODI series 2-1 and now all focus will be shifted towards T20's.

• Man of the Match - Hardik Pandya

• Winner - India

• Man of the Series - Steve Smith

• Australia won the series 2-1