Urdu Audio
Home Photos Books

News

Bhatkal news Business news Gulf news India news Other news See all

Articles

Bat Say Bat Books Introduction Medical Nawayat And Bhatkal Other See all

India tie down Australia despite Finch, Smith efforts

01:40PM Sun 24 Sep, 2017

Aaron Finch returned from a calf injury to become the first Australian opener since Shaun Marsh in 2009 to score an ODI century in India, but the hosts pulled it all back rather well in the last 15 overs to restrict them to 293 for 6, at least 35-50 runs short of what they would've hoped to get at one stage. After having scored 130 for the loss of just one wicket in the crucial middle phase (15 to 35 overs), the visitors lost their way towards the end, allowing for an Indian comeback, scoring only 87 in the last 15 overs, all but quashing hopes of Australia injecting life into the series.
Australia made a good start to the weekend, right from Smith calling correctly at the toss and opting to set a target on a benign surface. David Warner did not have to deal with Bhuvneshwar Kumar's big away swingers and could breathe freely in the middle, despite being tested by the bowler's discipline and knack of bowling wicket-to-wicket straighter ones on short of good length. Finch too, started without a trace of an urge to blaze away as the pair took the team to 49 by the 10th over.
Yuzvendra Chahal too did not have his added zip that he did in the previous two fixtures, while Hardik Pandya's medium pace was there for the taking. Only, the all-rounder used variation to great use and broke the opening stand, very much against the run of play. Operating from round the stumps, a well-disguised off-cutter was the undoing of the left-handed opener, who on another day would've taken his good start to a three-figure destination. On Sunday (September 24), however, he played for a straighter one and hence inside the line of the ball that rattled against the top of off-stump.
But, unlike the last two fixtures, a wicket did not bring two, or three for that matter, and set in panic. Steve Smith walked out coolly and forged a partnership with Finch. The conditions forced Virat Kohli to shuffle his bowlers around quite a bit and even bring back Bhuvneshwar and Jasprit Bumrah for a small spell in the middle to try and break the partnership. But Finch and Smith saw all of that off to continue to slowly build the team total. Finch reached his half-century during the stand and began to kick into the next gear. The explosive batsman took 28 balls each to get from 0 to 20 and then 20 to 40, but just 15 more to reach to 60. Smith too didn't look in any sort of bother as Australia aced the middle overs by amassing 130 runs for the loss of one wicket between overs 15 and 35.
The trouble for them arrived when Finch couldn't clear Kedar Jadhav at deep-midwicket with his slog sweep and fell for a 125-ball 124 in the 38th over. Glenn Maxwell walked out at No. 4 ahead of Travis Head with the intention of taking Australia's total towards and beyond the 300-run mark.
Australia were on 232 for 2 after 39 overs, and still were in with a chance to blaze away, considering Kohli had bowled out Hardik Pandya, his best bowler of the day, and needed to get two overs each from both his spinners, who Maxwell could target. Bumrah came back to bowl the last over before the final powerplay would kick in, when the spinners had to be thrown into the firing line. But Yuzvendra Chahal's knack of giving the ball some air, and the constant support for it from behind the stumps, didn't make Maxwell's ordeal too straightforward. Chahal stuck religiously to his agenda of bowling well outside the off-stump and letting Maxwell take all the risks, and kept the big-hitter tied down. Smith cracked under the growing pressures of dot balls and charged at a Kuldeep wrong 'un and miscued it to Bumrah at long-off.
Chahal followed up Kuldeep's scalp with one of his own with a teasingly wide outside the off-stump, tapping into Maxwell's refusal to play his big shots on the off-side. Maxwell danced down the track to one that already pitched outside off, but failed to put bat to it and gave his wicket to Chahal for the third time in a row. Marcus Stoinis shrugged off the brief dip for Australia with a six over long-off - as if signalling that there was still something left to salvage in the downward slide. But Head at the other end did not play along, as he misjudged an off-cutter from Bumrah and walked back after his stumps were splattered. Peter Handscomb, Matthew Wade's replacement, was welcomed with a well-disguised slower one from Bhuvneshwar, followed by a typical death-over delivery from Bhuvneshwar - full and wide - that didn't let Handscomb get a run.
The wicketkeeper-batsman decided to go after Bumrah, only for Manish Pandey to take one of those juggled, boundary line catches that evoked effusive praise from the commentators. Bhuvneshwar bowled a penultimate over of five singles before a slightly erring Bumrah conceded 12 in the last. Australia still finished with a sub-300 total, which might be insufficient in the end.
Brief Scores: Australia 293/6 in 50 overs (Aaron Finch 124, Steve Smith 63, David Warner 42; Jasprit Bumrah 2-52, Kuldeep Yadav 2-75) vs India.