Rahane rules from Sachin rulebook
AJINKYA Rahane turned to the great Sachin Tendulkar for advice and it appears to have paid off after his half-century set India on course for a series-clinching victory in the third ODI against Australia.
The five-wicket victory in Indore also guaranteed India top spot in the ICC World Rankings, a position they already hold in Test cricket.
For Rahane, it was a second successive half-century, following up a 55 in Kolkata with 70 as India chased down 294 with two overs to spare.
Given the opportunity in the absence of Shikhar Dhawan, Rahane looks to have found some form, and it is the help of Tendulkar which has helped him from a mental aspect.
He said: “Sachin told me ‘back your game’. He said opportunities will come sometimes, they will be missing sometimes. It is not in your hand.You need to work on your mind because the better the mindset, the better you do on the field.
“He did not tell me anything about the technical stuff. He mostly spoke about the mental preparations – about aggression etc. He has played so much against Australia, so he spoke to me about how to prepare mentally, and pointed out the lengths they generally bowl. It was great having the chat with him, and it gave me a lot of confidence.”
Having already lost the first two one-dayers, Australia looked set for a first win of the series when they were 224-1 with Aaron Finch (124) and Steve Smith (63) going strong.
Kuldeep Yadav removed both however, and from there Australia collapsed, making just 293-6 with only 59 runs coming in the last ten overs.
After that momentum shift, India made a flying start with Rahane and Rohit Sharma (71) putting on 139 for the first wicket before the new star of Indian cricket, Hardik Pandya, cracked 78 to take them to the verge of victory – Manish Pandey (36no) finishing the job.
Smith admitted afterwards: “We set it up beautifully, the first 37-38 overs.We put ourselves in a good position. Then the Indian bowlers executed well, we executed poorly. We needed 330-plus, Hardik was magnificent at the end.”