Australia have bagged the ODI series 2-0 after some class performance in two straight matches
The second ODI took place between India and Australia in the Sydney Cricket ground, Australia. It was another bad day at the office for Indian bowlers today as Australia won the high scoring contest by 51 runs. While batting first, Australia posted gigantic 389 runs on the board after choosing to walk with willows first. Just like the first ODI, the opening stand by David Warner (83 off 77) and Aaron Finch (60 off 69) was fierce enough to set the tone.
Steve Smith was named as the player of the match. Smith (104 off 64) didn’t leave any stone unturned to break the back of Indian bowlers as he stole the limelight with yet another century. Marnus Labuschagne (70 off 61) and Glenn Maxwell (63 off 29) were other stars that shined today from Australia’s star-studded batting set up. India’s bowling section remained weak where Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, and Hardik Pandya got one wicket each under their belt.
While chasing the heavy target, Mayank Agarwal and Shikhar Dhawan kicked off the perfect tone, but it couldn’t last long. Though skipper Virat Kohli came up with a sublime 89, it fell way short ahead of the massive target. KL Rahul played a significant knock of 76 runs to support the struggling side. Adam Zampa turned out to be the most economical one, while Pat Cummins clinched three wickets on his name.
Toss Update:
Aaron Finch has won the toss and elected to bat.
End of Innings: Australia posts 389/4
Virat Kohli: We have played enough 50 over cricket to pull up professionally. After the 30-over mark, the bodies started to stiffen up a little bit as we have not played a long game for a while. The guys have understood what we need to do right today. The second half was very encouraging even though we lost four wickets. The big partnership [between Dhawan and Pandya] kept us in the game. We can take a lot of positives from that. It’s about covering up in the early part of the innings where we are not far behind because you don’t wan’t your bowlers to not have time, especially at the death. We are playing the same XI.
Aaron Finch: We are going to bat. Stoinis is out today, a little bit of niggle in his side. We don’t want to push him too hard. Moises Henriques replaces him. The wicket was pretty good to be fair, got better with a bit of dew. Today, the wicket can get drier and slower as the game goes on.
Australia (Playing XI): Aaron Finch(c), David Warner, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Moises Henriques, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
India (Playing XI): Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli(c), Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal
Will India make changes to their playing XI? Who will replace Marcus Stoinis in Australia’s playing XI? Team news out soon. We are less than 10 minutes away from the toss.
Squads:
India: Virat Kohli (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul (vice-captain & wicket-keeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan.
Australia: Aaron Finch (captain), David Warner, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood, Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Cameron Green, Moises Henriques, Andrew Tye, Daniel Sams, Matthew Wade (wicketkeeper)
Match: Australia vs India, 2nd ODI
Date: Sunday, November 29
Time: 9:10 AM
Venue: Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney
India 329/9 after 49 overs.
Losing skipper, Virat Kohli said-
Completely outplayed. I think with the ball we were not that effecitve. Didn’t hit the areas we wanted to consistently. They’ve got a strong batting lineup and know the angles. Their total was a bit too steep, if you see we got 340 and still lost by 51 runs. With the areas they bowled, they were in a position to create chances and with those chances taken, they were on top. (on Hardik bowling) I think he gave away a bit of a bowling plan on this pitch, a lot of them bowled cutters (smiles). His bowling was out of nowhere I just asked him. KL and I thought even 100 in the last ten overs with Hardik to come was achievable. If KL and me had stuck around till the 40th over, we could have put them under pressure. The wicket was beautiful to bat on.
Player of the match, Steve Smith said-
Another great foundation set by Finchy and Davey. Let me go hard at the back end. The last two games, the boys have got us off to terrific starts. We know India have a good batting line-up so we needed big totals. I tried to whack the ball too hard in the IPL but I’ve started hitting it with more finesse I should say, which is working for me. Nice to score some runs again for the team and get us to a good total. I thought the boys were outstanding in the field as well.
Winning skipper, Aaron Finch said-
It was I guess (perfect perfomance with the bat). Anytime you get in the high 300s is good. Very pleased to wrap it up in two wins. No idea (on Warner’s fitness). We’ve got to reshuffle it around, I don’t think he’ll be available. Bit quicker would have been nice (on his own batting) but laid the foundation for the guys at the back end to come and play free cricket. The way Davey played up front was unbelievable. Then Smithy played out of his skin for two matches in a row. Henriques bowled to a simple plan and changed his pace a lot. As Virat said, we probably got a blueprint with Hardik’s bowling, he was really hard to hit with pace off deliveries.
