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With Australia having run down two scores of 300 or so in the first two matches of this series, everybody was wondering if they could do it again in the third game at the MCG.
The answer, eventually, was ‘yes’, as they chased down India’s total with seven balls and three wickets to spare. (SPOILER!)
Here are the ratings for the third ODI between Australia and India.
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Test matches
Grade: B
Thanks to England crushing South Africa in the third Test between those two teams, India had just officially gone to the number one ranking in Test match cricket.
This, of course, caused some people great confusion. But mostly just the people who only accept the ICC rankings when there’s one team so far ahead of the rest that the rankings are superfluous anyway.
Those kinds of people seemed to work under the assumption that India couldn’t possibly be number one because South Africa of a few years ago, the Australian side of the late 1990s and early 2000s and the 1980s West Indian teams were all better than them. Perhaps one of those teams should be ranked first instead.
Regardless, India were the number one ranked Test team, and given their strength in the longer form, they proceeded to play this ODI more like a Test match. As a first step, Rohit Sharma was dismissed for a very Test match total of six, rather than his regularly scheduled limited-overs century.
Should Steve Smith have recalled Sharma and allowed him to bat on for the ton? Yes, of course. That would be the sporting thing to do, in line with the Spirit of Cricket. But that’s just not Smith’s style.
Unperturbed, India ignored Smith’s poor sportsmanship and made their way to a total of 6-295 from their 50 overs. Excellent work from India. They had learned from the first two games that scoring more than 300 was a shortcut to defeat and adapted accordingly. Australia with no answer.
Indian crowds
Grade: A+
The Indian team were boosted by a magnificent crowd, cheering wildly for every run, particularly those by Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni. Their enthusiasm was infectious and the noise they made immense.
If anything was going to get the Indian team over the line in this game, it was this massive home ground advantage.
Australia did their best to combat the partisan MCG crowd, placing Marshes around the edge of the boundary in the hope that this would make the ground feel more like the sodden SCG.
But it was all to no avail. Roared on by his fans, Kohli made a run-a-ball 117, in the process becoming the fastest ever player to 7000 ODI runs, beating Don Bradman who, as we all know, fell just four runs short of making that landmark with a perfect strike rate of 100.
Jedi training
Grade: F
Australia started their run chase with relative serenity. Aaron Finch went early, but Shaun Marsh and Smith combined to take the total to 112.
It’s easy to mock Shaun Marsh. And also lots of fun, especially once you realise that his name is anagram of ‘ah, sham runs’. But he’s in fine form at the moment and played some breathtaking shots as he cruised to 62 off 73 balls.
Smith looked, if anything, even more comfortable. But Smith’s form is no longer even worth noting. He may well have transcended the entire concept of form.
Which is why it came as such a shock when he was suddenly out. Nobody seemed quite sure how this had happened.
The best working theory seemed to be that Shaun Marsh, bursting with enthusiasm from seeing the new Star Wars film, had gone back to watch the original movie. As a result, he had challenged Smith to bat with the blast shield on his batting helmet down.
“Good against the Indian attack is one thing,” Marsh had claimed. “Good against the living? That’s something else.”
Ishant Sharma
Grade: B
Regardless of whether half-cocked Jedi training was a factor in Smith’s dismissal, the fact remained that he was somehow out. George Bailey followed soon after and, suddenly, the maligned Indian attack was on top.
Especially when just a few runs after Glenn Maxwell replaced Bailey at the crease, Sharma had Shaun Marsh caught behind. The game was up for grabs.
I don’t care what anybody else says. I like Ishant. He’s still far and away my favourite cricketer whose name sounds like a defiant exclamation from a petulant nineteenth-century teenager.
Glenn Maxwell
Grade: C
With Australia 3-150, Maxwell made his way to the crease. He proceeded to score 96 off 83 with eight fours and three sixes, before skying a catch with the scores level in order to get James Faulkner on strike to officially finish the match as per Cricket Australia bylaws.
In the process, he also saw off both Marshes (including tricking Mitch Marsh into running himself out going for a lazy third), concocted an overhead scoop shot thing when play threatened to get a little dull and then finished the night commentating Faulkner’s winning run for Channel Nine after his dismissal.
All in an evening’s work for the great man. Nothing to get too worked up about.