Before the 4th ODI of the 5-match series between Indi and Australia, it was difficult to digest that a team like Australia was trailing the series by 0-3. However, things changed in Banglore as the Aussies finally managed to win a game After 11 straight defeats in completed matches away from home, Australia has finally won one, and won it comfortably in the end, by a margin of 22 runs.
Afer winning the toss, the Aussie skipper Steve Smith decided to bat first and their openers David Warner and Aaron Finch were off to a flying start as they put up an opening stand of 231 runs. However, glimpses of 3rd ODI were seen as the visitors lost 3 wickets in quick succession with the fall of Warner’s (124) wicket. They were looking sloppy in the middle but Indian bowling attack which was missing the services of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah didn’t able to capitalize on that situation and allowed Australia to reach a good total of 234/5.
Warner became the first Australian player to score a century in his 100th ODI. Overall he is the 8th player to achieve this feat after Gordon Greenidge, Chris Cairns, Yousuf Youhana, Kumar Sangakkara, Chris Gayle, Marcus Trescothick, and Ramnaresh Sarwan.
India’s bowling performances were below par considering their dominating bowling in the first three ODIs. They were on the verge of creating history as if they had managed to win this ODO then the men in blue could’ve attained a winning stretch of 10 consecutive One-Day Internationals. But, it seemed that they were completely disinterested in making the record to their name especially in the bowling department. Umesh Yadav, who took his 100th ODI wicket today was completely unidirectional throughout the innings and looking more than just rusty in his bowling.
However, while chasing the target of 335, Indian openers Rohit Sharma(65) and Ajinkya Rahane(53) also gave a dream start as built a partnership of 106 runs with the strike rate of almost 100. Things took a drastic turn for India after Rahane’s dismissal as soon after that Rohit got run-out again in a Rohit Sharma-Virat Kohli mix-up and after that Kohli(21) also got out in the similar way he was dismissed in the 2nd ODI. It’s a pretty rare sight to see Virat getting out in similar patterns as he is known to no to repeat his mistakes. But, in recent times it is happening more often than not as during the West Indies tour as well, Kohli got out in similar fashion in successive ODIs.
After going down to 147/3 in 25 overs, Kedar Jadhav and Hardik Pandya came to the rescue but still, they didn’t manage to get India home as both got out while trying hard to complete the run chase. Hardik(41) was dismissed in 38th over while Kedar(67) in 46th over. In the end, MS Dhoni tried hard to take India over the line but even the best finisher in the world couldn’t able to get it as the equation was down to 40 uns to get in last 3 overs and the pressure took the better off the Indian batsmen.
After all that we can call an entertaining game of cricket, one has to admit that it was a great win for Australia. There are few things for Team India to ponder as they need to win the final ODI in Nagpur on Sunday, in order to stay at the numero uno spot in the ICC ODI team rankings at the end of the series.
