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It was India’s to lose and they took on the responsibility well.
On a more serious note, Shikhar D and Virat Kohli played what could well have been the innings of their lives; instead, it will now appear as a footnote in the annals of the game. What will take the cake is the manner in which Australia kept at it, came back and then turned the screws on the soft Indian middle-order.
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Some of the shots played towards the end were abominable to say the least. Shikhar looked tired, but Dhoni’s was a nothing shot. Tough to blame Kohli after getting India into that position but then came those two rather inexplicable slogs from Gurkeerat Mann and Rishi Dhawan.
What that also means is that Australia has now won 18 matches in a row at home now. And by the looks of it, given how mentally shot will India be, number 19 won’t be too far away from here.
In the end, it was a remarkable collapse from the India’s batsmen and Australia home by 25 runs to secure a 4-0 series lead.
India are playing for pride, while Australia are gunning for a clean sweep when the two teams meet for the fourth ODI, in Canberra. You can follow all the action from 2:20pm (AEDT).
Three matches, batted first on each occasion, scored lot of runs, and yet beaten.
That’s been the story of the Indian team in the series so far, and they don’t seem to have found too many solutions.
Changes were finally made to the playing XI for the third ODI, with the inclusion of debutants Rishi Dhawan and Gurkeerat Mann, but the hosts proved too good, chasing down the target of 296.
India’a bowling has been disappointing enough for even Ravi Shastri to admit it’s a case of inexperience and expressing hope they will do better with time.
“There were too many easy boundaries. It is not like the batsmen had to earn it, they were given,” Shastri said. “That should be eliminated. Even if you cut that by 60 per cent, we will have tighter games. Those are the areas. Attention to basics. If we do that right, who knows…”
Australia have an inexperienced bowling attack, but whatever’s been conceded by them has been chased down by their very experienced batting line-up. George Bailey has been in the form of his life, Steven Smith never stops scoring against India, while Glenn Maxwell played the kind of innings in the third ODI that would make coach Darren Lehmann proud.
Apart from rained-off games, Australia is currently on a 17-match winning streak at home, having lost their last game late in 2014 to South Africa. In fact they are 28-2 on win-loss in the last 30 home matches.
It’s tough to see if India can come up with any plans to stop the opponents, but the first thing they will be looking to do is chase a target instead of batting first.
That, obviously, will depend on skipper MS Dhoni’s luck with the toss, but even if it happens, can the Indian bowlers restrict the hosts to a manageable score?
Follow all the action of this Australia vs India fourth ODI from 2:20pm (AEDT), and post your comments in the section below.
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