The final game of the Australia-India ODI series was in Sydney, with the hosts looking to wrap up a 5-0 series victory.
Glenn Maxwell had been ruled out of the Australian team with a leg injury, but, despite this gut-wrenching setback, the game went ahead.
Here are the ratings for the fifth ODI between Australia and India.
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David Warner’s sponsors
Grade: C+
The night before the game, David Warner had tweeted out that he was about to watch The Martian in Digital High Definition, adding that you, the loyal follower of Warner, could find the link to the movie in his bio.
Of course, this insight into his home-cinematic plans for the evening was simply a promotion on behalf of one of his sponsors, much like his Toyota jump upon reaching a century, his love of turtles or that time he punched Joe Root.
You can’t begrudge Warner making a bit of cash on the side. It can be tough for cricketers to make ends meet and every little bit helps.
What I did find an impressive level of dedication to the sponsor, however, was when Warner re-enacted most of The Martian during his innings for Australia, being stranded alone in the middle of the SCG by the rest of the top order, forced to survive by his wits, until Mitchell Marsh could be sent out to rescue him.
Marshes
Grade: B
For, yes, this was a game built for the Marshes. Oh, sure, Shaun Marsh had inexplicably run himself out for seven, a disappointingly unfunny score for him.
But Shaun would later go on to take an outfield catch, diving backwards, with both arms stretched out, adding the ability to catch like John Dyson to his resume alongside his previously established ability to bat like John Dyson.
Later, he would drop a far easier catch, just like that time Dyson also dropped an easy catch. The resemblance is truly uncanny.
But enough of Shaun. The attention during the Australian innings was firmly on Mitch Marsh, who was a chance to bring up his maiden ODI century. He took his time, with he and John Hastings only bringing up seven off the final two overs ending the Australian innings on 7-330, a slowdown that would in no way come back to haunt the team.
But with three balls left in the innings, Marsh did bring up his ton, prompting this tweet from Warner:
Century done! Really enjoyed watching The Marsh'un on Digital HD. iTunes link in my bio #marshunmovie #DigitalHD
— Dan Liebke (@LiebCricket) January 23, 2016
Channel Nine
Grade: F
Of course, having the Marshes in the thick of action brought out the most sickening cheerleading tendencies of the Nine commentators. We’d already seen in the pre-match show a probing interview between James Brayshaw and Mitch Marsh about the hilarious leg cramps that had struck the latter down in the previous game.
The commentary box had then moved into vaguely offensive areas during the match as they discussed the Christian names of Indian cricketers, many of whom, it must be pointed out, are Christianity-challenged.
Ha ha ha! When will those crazy Indian players get proper names like Tubby, Bing, Slats, Heals or Pup?
But Mitch’s batting and Shaun’s Dyson-emulating soon got the commentary team back on track, speculating about what parents Geoff and Michelle would be thinking.
Frankly, it’s only a matter of time until we get a Marshes reality show.
Marsh Ado About Nothing? My Favourite Marsh’uns? M.A.R.S.H?
Personally, I’d just like to see Rod with a show called Keeping With The Kardashians.
Record amounts of runs
Grade: A-
India needed to chase 331 for victory. Thankfully, they were never going to get a better chance to do so, as the series became the highest run-scoring five-match series in ODI history.
Ha! Take that, bowlers. You idiots!
In fact, so obvious was the advantage to batsmen in the series that the record was announced about a hundred runs before it was actually broken. Confidence.
More importantly, this was also the ODI series that contained the most 2-222s ever. Marvellous tribute to Richie Benaud. Thank you, curators. Thank you, groundsmen.
Indian victories
Grade: B+
The Indian chase was almost perfect. Except, perhaps, for Virat Kohli, who didn’t do much other than pick his usual fight, this time with a Spidercam.
But Rohit Sharma led his team to the brink of victory before being given out, caught behind for 99. It was a long, considered decision, and one Sharma seemed unhappy with. But clearly umpire Paul ‘Blocker’ Wilson took so much time to give Rohit out only because he was waiting to see if Matthew Wade would eventually drop it.
Eventually, MS Dhoni joined youngster Manish Pandey at the crease. The Indian captain played it cool, scoring just 34 off 42 balls when the required run rate was really rather a lot more than that.
It prompted the question of how much pressure could Pandey bear?
The answer? Rather a lot, as he brought up his century before guiding India to victory with just two balls remaining.
The Aussie needed every centimetre of his height and reach to reel that one in!
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