[VIDEO] Australia vs India highlights: One day cricket live scores, blog

Match result:

Australia remain undefeated in the one day international Tri series with a 4 wicket win over India at the MCG last night.

In a tight contest between the two nations, Australia held on, to secure their 9th win in Australia in their last 11 matches.

The match was won for Australia – and lost for India – in the final 10 overs of the Indian innings.

At 4/237 with over 6 overs to go, India looked good to make 280-300, and set Australia a solid total to chase.

Instead, Mitchell Starc destroyed the middle order, and turned the match.

He took 4 vital wickets, including both Dhoni and Sharma, to restrict the visitors to 267 and have figures of 6/43.

Sharma was the highlight of the Indian innings, with a great 138, after a horrid few innings in the recent test series.

I said after the innings it was 20 runs too short. It proved to be the case.

Australia looked untroubled in the chase until the final 10 overs.

At 2/216, Australia looked home, with Finch and Smith at the crease.

When they lost Smith for 47, and Finch for a composed 96, Australia collapsed, and lost momentum.

When Bailey and Maxwell failed to fire to get them home, it was down to Haddin and Faulkner to save the day.

They did just that with Faulkner hitting two big boundaries to get them home.

Had India made 20 more runs, they would have won the game.

Their spinners bowled well with Yadav also bowling well at the death after being attacked early by Australia.

The win puts Australia in the box seat to qualify for the final.

One more win puts them in that position.

India now face England on Tuesday needing to win the match to stay alive in the finals race.

That should be a cracker.

Australia though will be happy with the win. They will also be happy to get away with a match that they could have lost.

Match preview:

Australia will be looking to make it two wins in three days in the one day cricket Tri Series with a win against India at the MCG today.

Join The Roar for live scores of the second one day international in the Tri Series from 2:00pm AEDT.

On Friday, Australia started their preparation for the World Cup in the perfect way, with a dominant 3 wicket win over England at the SCG.

While a three-wicket win is usually a close contest between two teams, this wasn’t the case on Friday.

After England made 234 in their 50 overs, Australia chased down the 235 required for victory in under 40 overs to claim a bonus point victory.

They were led by David Warner who made 127 and Mitchell Starc who was man of the match with 4/42. It was a strong performance from Australia and it continued their recent dominance of teams in this country. In the last ten matches played in Australia, which have been between England and South Africa, Australia has won eight of them.

They will look to continue that form today against India.

After dominating the recent Test series, with a 2-0 win, they will be looking to continue that momentum in the shorter form of the game.

For India they will be looking to find some form, and confidence, leading into the World Cup. MS Dhoni, who retired after the Melbourne test match, returns to the squad to captain the team in the Tri Series.

He is joined by the majority of the squad that recently played in the Test series. At the press conference yesterday for the match, Dhoni revealed that Ishant Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja would be unavailable for the match.

Much of the success for India will come from their batting today. They will need to either make a large target that Australia can’t make, or chase down a large target tonight.

After their bowling line-up struggled to take 20 wickets in each of the Tour tests, I predict they will do the same in the short form of the game.

This leaves Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane and Dhoni with a big responsibility to make runs. Australia will be hoping Mitchell Starc and James Faulkner continue their form from Friday night when they combined for seven wickets.

These two teams have met 115 times since their first meeting in 1980. Australia lead the ledger with 66 wins to India’s 40.

The last actual meeting between the two was in 2013 in Bangalore. Rohit Sharma made 209 as India made 383. Australia, who made 326, fell 57 runs short in the chase with James Faulkner making 116.

I expect a similarly high-scoring match today.

The team that bats first will make around 300 with the opposition getting around that total in return.

At the moment, with the form of India, you can’t predict them to win the match.

Australia’s form has been impressive in all forms of cricket in Australia. They just don’t look like being beaten if they play well in every area. I expect that to continue today in a high scoring game.

Prediction – AUSTRALIA