Australia showed great character with the ball to stage a come-from-behind win in the the series decider at the MA Chidambaram stadium by 21 runs that helped them usurp India at the top of the ICC ODI rankings.
India lost seven wickets for 102 runs on a dry surface in Chennai where the spinners came to the fore. Like Australia, India too got off to a rollicking start with both Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill finding the fence routinely to put on a quickfire 65-run stand in pursuit of 270.
Earlier, Australia huffed and puffed to the seemingly below-par total after having blazed off the blocks in the decider at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai. Thanks to some typically flamboyant batting by Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh, Australia had flourished in the powerplay but lost the plot with the introduction of Hardik Pandya.
The all-rounder saw Head being reprieved on 17 by Shubman Gill at deep square leg but had him caught at third man shortly thereafter to make sure that the damage was minimised. He netted the big fish promptly as Australia’s skipper Steve Smith nicked off in his next over to fall for a duck. With his assortment of cutters and back of length balls, Hardik put a kibosh on Australia’s freewheeling strokeplay. The wicket of Mitchell Marsh was the icing on the cake as the burly hitter fell three short of what could have been three fifties on the trot.
The quick wickets twinned with the discipline shown by Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav kept the squeeze on Australia, but in the end they managed to put up a total that challenged India.
Australia lose half their side as Marnus Labuschagne departs for 28.#INDvAUS | 📝: https://t.co/1TO8TYwH93 pic.twitter.com/2SzcgH8fZl
— ICC (@ICC) March 22, 2023
