Plucky India survive Glenn Maxwell’s onslaught
Australian allrounder produces a stunning six-hitting display before India fightback to secure a narrow victory.
India earned itself a consolation prize with victory in Canberra in the final game of the ODI series against Australia on Wednesday.
The visitors pulled off a 13-run win with three balls remaining. For a while Glenn Maxwell threatened to get his side home, the hard-hitting batsman scoring 59 from 38 balls and threatening drinkers in nearby Manuka bars with his prodigious six hitting.
Aaron Finch’s 75 completed a good series for the skipper who scored 60 and 114 in the previous games.
It was, however, the hard hitting of Indian allrounders Hardik Pandya (92no) and Ravi Jadeja (66no) that proved the difference. Their sixth-wicket stand of 150 turned the match and lifted the tourists to 5-302 from 50 overs.
The pair took down recalled paceman Sean Abbott and Josh Hazlewood, belting 87 runs from the last six overs. Pandya was awarded player of the match and Steve Smith player of the series for his extraordinary centuries in the first two games in Sydney.
Virat Kohli further confirmed his brilliance as a batsman even as questions about his captaincy and team harmony continued to swirl dust in the courtyard of Indian cricket.
Dismissed for 63 to the finest of edges from the bowling of Hazlewood, Kohli moved past 12,000 ODI runs in what was his 242nd innings. To put that into perspective: Sachin Tendulkar reached the mark in his 300th innings, Ricky Ponting in his 314th.
Kohli’s 63 from 78 balls was his 60th half century at this level.
India came into the match having lost the series and the captain facing criticism with the side losing the previous five matches. Kohli’s lack of success as a skipper in the IPL has also been noted in criticism from home.
The brilliant cricketer appears to have had a falling out with prolific opener Rohit Sharma who did not make the trip to Australia because of injury, despite playing for his successful Mumbai franchise in the IPL finals.
Kohli complained in a recent press conference that when the squad was announced that selectors were told Rohit was injured and assumed he would not play in the rest of the IPL.
The captain said that the opener’s appearance in the finals led him to assume he would be on the plane to Australia but he didn’t know where he was or why.
“There has been no information, there has been a lack of clarity. We have been playing the waiting game,” Kohli had said.
Soon after the BCCI confirmed Rohit was undergoing rehab at home and would be assessed ahead of possibly joining the squad. There are reports a phone conference with the interested – and distant – parties was held soon after.
Rohit will be ready to play by the time Kohli has left after the Adelaide Test to be with his wife for the birth of their first child.
The third and final match of the ODI series may have been a dead rubber, but the teams were not on cruise control. India made four unforced changes to the team that lost the first two games and Australia brought in three new faces.
David Warner was unavailable because of a groin strain but Mitchell Starc’s absence through injury was more of a surprise.
“Starcy has got a little bit of a back and a rib niggle,” captain Finch said at the toss. “The medical staff think he will benefit from a few days off.
“It’s very exciting to have Cameron Green make his debut, Sean Abbott comes back into the side and Ashton Agar.”
Green, 21, is rated by Greg Chappell as the best batsman he has seen since Ponting. The West Australian is also a serious bowling option but has only recently returned to the craft after a lay off due to stress fractures.
He is earmarked as a Test player and is expected to play the Australia A game against India A on Sunday which will also feature the other “best since Ponting” William Pucovski.
Green showed promising signs with bat and ball conceding 27 runs from four overs before notching 21 from 27 balls, including a slog sweep for six over mid-wicket from Jadeja’s bowling.
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