Australia v India: Live coverage of third one-dayer at MCG
MS Dhoni produced another batting masterclass to steer India to a thrilling final-over victory over Australia to clinch the ODI series.
MS Dhoni proved the immovable force as the Indian maestro steered his team to a seven-wicket win against Australia to seal victory in the ODI series decider at the MCG.
THE one one-day win which only a week ago had Australians dreaming of a brighter World Cup future proved more of a one-hit wonder as the defending champs ran into an MS Dhoni-shaped brick wall at the MCG.
Dhoni guided his team to a 2-1 series win which will ensure the blowtorch continues to be turned on Aussie skipper Aaron Finch who will have to confront his and his team’s demons again next month when the sides face off in India.
Finch managed just 14 before being dismissed by Indian seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar for the third time in a row.
Chess-playing leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chalal then took 6-42, the best ever ODI figures in Australia to help roll the home team for just 230 and put the tourists on course for a second trophy in as many weeks.
But it was Indian legend Dhoni, in what’s likely his last innings on Australian soil, who really drove the dagger in.
The 37-year-old was dropped first ball by Glenn Maxwell, when India was 2-59, and then again at the start of the 48th over, by Finch, with India still requiring 27 runs to win and the pressure building.
But doing what Dhoni has so often done, he hit the next ball for four, regained control of the game and said goodbye to Australia with a match-winning innings of 87 not out.
The seven-wicket loss was Australia’s 18th in its past 22 one-day games and Australia’s sixth straight ODI series loss.
With just 10 more games to prepare for the World Cup opener in England in June, the $6 on offer for the defending champions seems the definition of “under the odds”.
As the white-ball summer wrapped up for the Australians, no-one will be more delighted to see the back of the Indian bowlers than Finch after losing a game of cat and mouse with Kumar that had the Aussie skipper looking decidedly uncomfortable.
He was put in the gun pre-game by the Indians and batted so far out of his crease, to combat Kumar dialing in on his pads, that the Indian seamer countered by bowling one ball from behind the umpire.
Finch walked away as Kumar delivered it, and it was called a dead-ball. But Kumar got his man the very next ball, dismissing Finch LBW, to take his run tally to 135 in 10 white-ball innings this summer.
Finch will return to the Big Bash in a bid to find form before heading to India next month when his, and Australia’s World Cup preparations step up another big notch.
Aaron Finch and Alex Carey have the Australian innings underway, after they were sent in to bat on a gloomy Melbourne day with the start of play delayed due to rain.
As they gear up for their World Cup defence, victory at the MCG would hand Finch’s men their first series win in two years.
Since beating Pakistan 4-1 in January 2017, Australia have won four and lost 20 ODIs with three no-results due to weather.
It is an alarming trend which national selectors have been understandably keen to correct ahead of the World Cup starting in May.
FLAT STARTS
AUSTRALIAN selectors elevated Alex Carey to open with Aaron Finch, and the skipper said it was about building flexibility in the line-up.
But the selectors may need to be flexible too and find a new partner for Finch after the pair failed to pass 20 in the three-game series.
Their opening average was just eight, with Finch twice out first before Carey was gone for five at the MCG.
Travis Head and Chris Lynn were Finch’s opening partners in the November series loss to South Africa, and neither of them were even in the squad against India.
Plenty are advocating for D’Arcy Short, the leading run-scorer in the Big Bash, to get another go. If he’s not in the squad for the Indian series, then forget about him in national colours for a while.
HANDY HANDSCOMB
THERE were a few eyebrows raised when Peter Handscomb was picked for the one-day team, after his technique was found wanting at Test level.
But the Victorian skipper has shown a capacity to play a leading hand in white-ball games, having averaged 50 in the domestic one-day competition last October, which the Vics won.
While he’s been selected for the Aussie team because of his capacity to control an innings through the middle-order, his 151 runs in the three-game series against India, with two 50s, was only behind Shaun Marsh (224) for Australia and came at a strike rate over 100.
It was an effort which has potentially earned him a spot in the World Cup final-15 ahead Usman Khawaja, who could only score his 114 runs at 75.
Or at least five more auditions in next month’s series against India.
MAX FACTOR
Plenty have argued Glenn Maxwell was batting too low coming in at number seven. He’s been designated the “floater”, but didn’t float at all during the series.
When Australia slumped to 5-123, inside 30 overs, Maxwell had the chance press his claims for a lift up the order.
He walked to the crease wearing just a yellow cap with spinners operating at both ends and carved out four boundaries in his first 16 balls. It was the most any Australian player hit.
The Victorian got a fifth boundary off a top-edge from Mohammad Shami, the first of three straight short balls as India tried to work on Maxwell’s impulsive side.
He hit a four off the first, the second was a wide, and he was out to the third, skying a top-edge to fine-leg, caught in an Indian trap.
Maxwell lasted just 19 balls, and left with 15 overs of the innings still to go.
IN A SPIN, OR NOT ?
INDIAN leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, a former Indian junior chess champion, hadn’t played a one-day game for India since last October but showed little rust taking 2-2 in his first over at the MCG.
He had Shaun Marsh stumped off a wide, then got rid of Usman Khawaja caught and bowled, before, snaring Marcus Stoinis and Peter Handscomb too in his second spell and finished off the tail as they tried to slog their way to a score.
Chalal’s 6-42 was the best ever-figures in an ODI in Australia.
But the other two spinners India played at the MCG, Ravindra Jadeja and Kedar Jadhav went wicketless. The Aussies took them down for 88 runs in 15 overs too, a handy return in a low total.
Through the opening two games, the bowling figures for the Indian tweakers were 4-230, off 42 overs, an Aussie run rate of nearly 5.5 an over, and nearly 60 runs per wicket
All told, Australia lost 10 wickets to slow bowling in the three games they also scored 360 runs.
It’s an improvement on what were serious troubles against slow bowling, but clearly not perfect, yet.
KOHLI MOLY
VIRAT Kohli came, he saw, he conquered on a tour of Australia to remember,
The Indian captain led his team in three series; T20, Test and one-day internationals. India won two, and were only denied a shot at the T20 series by an MCG washout.
Kohli didn’t pummel the Australian bowling attacks like last time he toured, but enhanced his standing as the world’s batting benchmark.
But the two trophies will sit best with Kohli who was determined to create history.
He won his country’s first-ever Test series in Australia, and the 2-1 victory in the one-day series was India’s best result here since 2008.
Kohli finished his own tour with 500 runs and two hundreds. But his team has a mental stranglehold over Australia’s batsmen until they meet again, on his turf, next month.
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