AUSSIES ARRIVE AT LAST
WARNER PLAYS A STARRING ROLE AS VISITORS BEAT INDIA
BANGALORE: David Warner’s brilliant 124 in his 100th ODI, combined with some brilliant death bowling from Australia where they gave away just 31 runs in the last five overs, helped Steve Smith’s team end their overseas ODI woes with a 21-run win over India at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Thursday.
At 282/4 in the 45th over, with Kedar Jadhav having smashed a fifty and Manish Pandey batting aggressively, India seemed to be on course for a win. However, Kane Richardson got Jadhav for 67 with a leg-cutter and Australia got a foothold in the game. In the 46th over bowled by Pat Cummins, Manish Pandey insideedged a slog on to his leg-stump to depart for a 25-ball 33.
The Chinnaswamy crowd had not lost its voice for MS Dhoni strode out to bat. A four off Cummins and a flat six over deep extra cover off Richardson gave India hope, but the Australian pacer held his nerve and bowled the former Indian skipper for 13 to break India’s resolve and thwart their attempt at winning 10 consecutive ODIs.
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Australia’s foundation for snapping their prolonged away losing streak was built on a stunning century from David Warner, who was playing his 100th ODI. The left-hander, along with Aaron Finch, capitalised on some wayward pace bowling from Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami – both playing their first game of the series.
Warner, who had not scored big in the last three ODIs, ended his run of poor scores in India as he notched up his maiden hundred in India. He became the eighth batsman to slam a century on his 100th ODI. At the other end, Finch, who had smashed a century in Indore, continued his great run and their partnership was worth 231 runs, a new Australian opening record in ODIs versus India.
However, Kedar Jadhav removed Warner for 124 and Umesh Yadav picked up two quick wickets, including that of skipper Steve Smith for three runs, to reach 100 ODI wickets. The dismissal of Smith was met with some boos from the Chinnaswamy Stadium crowd, a reminder of his ‘brain fade’ incident during the Test in March.
With three quick wickets, Australia looked like throwing away the initiative as they did in Indore. However, Peter Handscomb (43) and Travis Head (29) shared a fifty-plus stand to boost Australia to 334/5.
India started off like a train with Rohit Sharma smashing sixes at will. He was given good company by Ajinkya Rahane, who hit a hat-trick of fifties to continue his great run at the top.
Rohit notched up his 34th fifty and looked good for a big score. However, on 65, he was run out due to a misunderstanding with Virat Kohli. Kohli was removed for the second time in the series by Nathan Coulter-Nile .
Hardik Pandya kept India in the hunt but after his dismissal, it became very tough for India.