Axar Patel, Kedar Jadhav help India restrict Oz in Nagpur ODI
It won’t be easy to recall an instance when a part-timer had bowled his entire quota of overs on the trot with the side’s highest wicket-taker of the series tucked somewhere near the ropes.
However, Kedar Jadhav did exactly that on Sunday as India restricted Australia to 242/9 after the Baggy Greens had reached the century mark losing one wicket in the fifth and final ODI at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium here.
Jadhav bowled in tandem with left-arm spinner Axar Patel, who claimed the prize wickets of David Warner and Travis Head besides removing Peter Handscomb to reduce Australia to 118/4 at one point.
Patel’s first spell of 8-0-31-2 -overall 3/38 in 10 overs -- was impressive with the miserly economy rate an added bonus. Kedar Jadhav was introduced by skipper Virat Kohli as early as the 14th over and he didn’t disappoint, removing skipper Steve Smith in the 20th over, finishing with 1/48.
GOOD START
Australia were off to a decent start with Aaron Finch and David Warner playing cautiously against Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar — the duo were brought back into the side replacing Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami. They didn’t take much time to settle down though with Finch going after the bowling and Warner playing the anchoring role. But having raced to 32 off 35 deliveries, Finch tried to push one over cover, but holed out to Bumrah off Hardik Pandya instead.
Skipper Steve Smith too started well, smashing the first ball to the fence with a glorious cover drive, but was undone by a straight delivery from Jadhav to be trapped in front of the wicket.
Warner (53 -- 62 b, 5x4) and Handsomb fell soon after, the former playing a sluggish shot to be caught on the ropes by Manish Pandey.
TIGHT BOWLING
With Australia, 1-3 down in the series, reeling under pressure and facing yet another middleorder crumble, Travis Head (42) and Marcus Stoinis (46) lifted their side from the precarious position with well-paced knocks. Both relied on singles to keep the scoreboard ticking while scoring the odd boundary in between. With Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav being the only regular spinners in the side, Kohli turned to Jadhav, sticking to him till he finished his full quota of overs.
Although Jadhav contributed just one wicket, he did enough to slow things down in the middle and provide the hosts the upper hand.
In the 16 overs he shared with Patel, Australia managed to P Cummins not out 2 (2) N Coulter-Nile b Kumar 0 (1) Extras (b1,lb2,w3) 6 Total (9 wkts, 50 ovs) 242 FoW: 1-66, 2-100, 3-112, 4-118, 5-205, 6-210, 7-237, 8-242,
9-242.
Bowling: B Kumar 8-0-40-1, J Bumrah 10-2-51-2, H Pandya 2-0-14-1, K Yadav 10-1-48-0, K Jadhav 10-0-48-1, A Patel 10-0-38-3.
SPIN WEB India spinners share four wickets to restrict Australia after David Warner’s opening blitz NAGPUR: