Chahal floats it up, fatigued Aussie batsmen bamboozled
After the smash and grab at Sydney, and the last over shenanigans in Adelaide, the final ODI of this series was far more in the mould of what we’d expected. Australia’s batsmen were unable to cope with the skill of India’s spinners, crumbling to a limp score of 230, and then soon after to a defeat. MS Dhoni raised his game and showed glimpses of his old ruthlessness, but this was a victory for Indian bowlers.
In particular, Australia fell apart in the face of Yuzvendra Chahal. The leg-spinner’s final figures of 10-0-42-6 are the best ever by a spinner in an ODI in Australia, a fine display of skilful, canny wrist-spin bowling that India have produced throughout this series when needed.
He did it without his usual bowling partner. Twenty three of Chahal’s 35 ODIS have been played alongside his fellow wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav, but not this game — and it appeared to free him up. Indeed, Chahal has often succeeded more without Kuldeep than with him, averaging 26.77 when he’s in the side and 19.57 when he’s not. Perhaps Kohli is encouraged to bowl him at more dangerous, attacking seas and run out of energy and application as the tour comes to an end, but Aaron Finch’s side showed little ability to resist.
Chahal’s bowling speed at Melbourne (78.73kph) was the slowest he’s bowled in an ODI since February, really tossing it up there to try and deceive the Australian batsmen in the flight. However, he wasn’t putting a lot of revolutions on the ball — today, he found 0.95° of drift, the least he’s ever found in an ODI. He was slow, but these weren’t deliveries carving through the air. They were floated. But they sunk Australia.
In and of itself, it was a good performance from Chahal. Australia have a weakness against spin, a gaping, seeping wound in their credentials for anything resembling white ball success.
Since the Champions Trophy Australia have lost a wicket every 31.6 balls against spin — of teams at next year’s World Cup, this is the worst. India, and specifically Chahal, ruthlessly put their foot on the throat and refused to budge until Australia had stopped twitching.