The Liebke Ratings: Australia vs India, second ODI

With Australia having won the first match in this series at, oh, let’s say Sydney, the two sides headed to Adelaide to play a game of Sweltering Heatball, which India won by six wickets, four balls and 45 degrees Celsius.

Here are the ratings for the Second ODI between Australia and India.

Glenn Maxwell
Grade: B-

Between ODIs, all the talk had been about Glenn Maxwell and where he should be batting in this Australian line-up. One possibility put forward was that rather than a fixed batting position of seven, Maxwell could perhaps float up and down the order depending on the match situation.

Confusingly, however, when this option was put to Justin Langer, the coach enigmatically responded “we all float down here”, before scurrying off and disappearing down a nearby sewer.

Despite this, one thing pretty much everybody agreed on was that Maxwell needed to bat more than the five balls he faced in the first match. Luckily, openers Aaron Finch and Alex Carey were among those who felt this way, and were therefore both dismissed early, opening up the prospect.

For many years, the fundamental thrill of a one-day international was the delicious balance between the number of balls remaining in the innings and the number of runs required to win. Australia has now improved on that. These days, the balance that excites their fans is the one between the number of balls remaining in the innings and the number of wickets until Glenn Maxwell is due to bat.

Always evolving is the white-ball game.

Shaun Marsh
Grade: B+

When Maxwell did get to bat, coming in at 5-189 in the 37th over, his partner was Shaun Marsh.

It’s easy to make fun of Shaun Marsh, of course. And fun, too. After all, there’s so much material to work with: the lineage, the constant assurances that he’s hitting them well in the nets, his tendency to play mindless shots when the side least needs him to play a mindless shot, the opportunities extended to him that are not extended to others, his maddening ability to score a just-good-enough 60-odd when his position finally becomes in doubt, the buttocks abscesses, the brother that provides almost exactly the same material but with poorer batting and only marginally better bowling, the—

Sorry, I got distracted there. What was my point?

Oh, that’s right. My point was that this wasn’t the terrible Shaun Marsh from the Test side. This was the good Shaun Marsh. The ODI Shaun Marsh.

ODI Shaun Marsh is fantastic, and he proved it again here, scoring a magnificent 131 from 123 balls, as he and Maxwell propelled Australia towards their final total of 9-298.

Debutant bowlers
Grade: D

The bowler who suffered the most at the hands of Maxwell and Marsh was a debutant, Mohammed Siraj, who ended with the figures of 0-76. He did have Maxwell LBW earlier in the innings, but a successful DRS review saw the decision overturned. This felt harsh.

Surely the ICC should disallow the use of DRS for the first career wicket taken by each bowler? Because it’s too cruel otherwise. I’m including front-foot no balls in this, as there have been a few of those in recent summers too, as I recall. And, besides, what could be more exciting than seeing bowlers on debut overstepping fearlessly as they strive for that initial victim?

On the other hand, Maxwell followed up his LBW reprieve by slicing a one-handed shot over cover for four. It was typically mental stuff from Maxwell and it would have been a shame for fans to have been denied that shot. So maybe while we’re mucking about with DRS, we should also allow batsmen one extra delivery and permit them to stay only if they can hit a one-handed boundary.

Look, I’m spitballing here. There are no bad ideas in a brainstorm.

Other than these ones, obviously.

Virat Kohli
Grade: A-

India’s run chase was powered by Virat Kohli, batting like an Indian version of Shaun Marsh to bring up a century of his own. He was in complete control of the run chase and while he was out there, victory for India seemed assured.

Which was why it was such a surprise during the final drinks break that he left the field and returned with a blindfold to attempt the last seven overs via a Bird Box challenge.

As a result, he almost immediately skied one to the outfield. Maxwell then came up with the cunning plan that had until that point eluded his teammates of not letting the ball bounce before it reached him. And Kohli had to go for 104.

Virat Kohli (AP Photo/Rui Vieira)

Old man Dhoni
Grade: B+

With Kohli gone, it was time for India’s favourite cricketing uncle, MS Dhoni, to step up. Until that point, he’d dithered around, looking for his spectacles, spilling soup on his tie and clumsily fulfilling other avuncular stereotypes one might expect in a paragraph such as this.

But he suddenly sprung into life at the death, precisely as the Law of Paradoxes dictates. Despite being so dehydrated that he was drinking pickle juice, collapsing between overs, walking short runs and hallucinating behind-the-stumps chatter from Rishabh Pant, Dhoni somehow found the energy to level the scores with a six in the final over and level the series with the match-winning run from the next ball.

A series poised at 1-1 heading to Melbourne? I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this one already this summer.