It was a tense finish in the end to what was turning out to be a cakewalk for Australia in the second match of the Carlton Mid triangular series. After winning the first match of the tri-series against England quite comfortably, Australia was on course of winning against India almost in a similar. But it was not to be. They won it finally by 4 wickets but not before India had got back strongly into the match.
Earlier in the day India won the toss and decided to bat first. India got off to one of the worst possible starts when Shikhar Dhawan went out in the very early with only 3 runs on the board. Rahane and Rohit Sharma tried to bring things back to India’s way but debutant Gurinder Sandhu did Rahane in with a bit of extra bounce as he edged it to the keeper while playing a square-cut. Virat Kohli also failed to blossom with the bat as India went 3 wickets down within first 20 overs and less than 100 runs on the board. Just then Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina took control of the proceedings. Rohit and Raina steadied the Indian ship through the middle overs but could not make it bigger. Raina got to his half-century and then got out on the last ball before the batting powerplay. Dhoni came in but could not make much difference as he scored 19 runs before playing on to the stumps at a crucial stage of the match. However Rohit Sharma played a solid innings from the other end and went on to make his 6th one-day international century. It was a classy innings from Rohit and had he not been there India could have got out on a score much less than what they eventually scored. Mitchell Starc bowled excellently with both the new and the old ball and ended up figures of 10-1-43-6.
India’s 267/8 was just below the average run scored over the last few one-dayers at the MCG. And Australia made it look even lesser as David Warner and Aaron Finch provided them with a great start. Finch played the anchoring role while Watson (41) and Smith (47) added valuable runs in the chase. But once Shami got the wicket of Steve Smith and Umesh Yadav the wicket of Finch (96) in quick succession, India came back strongly into the match. The wicket Glen Maxwell made it even more interesting. However in the end James Faulkner and Brad Haddin took Australia over the line with one over to spare.
Mitchell Starc got the man-of-the-match award for his 6 wickets. It could have been Rohit Sharma as well. But overall it was a great one day match in exhibition. India played good cricket as the bowling slowly showed some sort of discipline after a wayward start. However the injury of Mohammad Shami towards the end of the Australian innings will keep the Indian think tank worried as there is very little time left before the next one-dayer at Brisbane against England. Moreover with the world cup coming up in less than a month’s time India needs Shami to get fit as early as possible.
Tags: Australia india Mitchell Starc Rohit Sharma
