The all-around team effort helped Team India to avoid the whitewash against Australia in the final ODI. Pandya-Jadeja show in the first innings, followed by a compact bowling display give Men in Blue a 13-runs moral victory. With this win, India broke the 7-matches losing jinx in international cricket.
Toss: India opted to bat first
Venue: Manuka Oval, Canberra
Team changes: ShubmanGill, Natarajan & Shardul Thakur come in (India)
Cameroon Green, Ashton Agar & Sean Abbott come in (Australia)
Detailed Report
First innings:
Abbott struck in the 6th over to pick Dhawan after scoring 16. Shubhman Gill replaced Agarwal for this match and he looked promising good with his technical approach but Agar picked him despite taking a DRS call. Virat Kohli completed his 12000 runs in ODI cricket to become 2nd Indian and 6th player to achieve this feat. India lost Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul to find the scoreline 123/4. Kohli completed another fifty but he couldn’t convert his knock into a ton as Hazlewood got him out after reviewing the umpire’s call. After losing the half-team on 152, India required a rebuilding process to get a safe total on this surface. Jadeja and Pandya constructed the innings to avoid any big blow to India.
Pandya completed his second half-century of the series and both took India to 200. In flag-overs, the duo delivered destruction as they smashed Aussie-pacers out of the park. In the last 7-overs, India scored 93 runs to cross the magic figure of 300. Jadeja also scored a fine half-century and Pandya remained not out on 92. They added unbeaten 150 runs for the 6th wicket to take India to 302.
2nd innings:
The new opening par didn’t work out for Australia as they lost Labuschagne in the 6th over. It was Natarajan’s maiden international wicket who made a debut with this match. Last match’s centurion, Steve Smith also failed in this match and Thakur grabbed him on just 7. Finch, on the other hand, was playing with an attacking approach and formed a partnership with Moises Henriques. Shardul Thakur broke the 61-runs stand by picking Henriques.
Jadeja got the huge wicket of Finch as Dhawan picked another fine catch on the boundary line. Finch scored an outstanding 75 off 82 balls and he was the top-scorer of Australia’s innings. Kuldeep Yadav also got his first wicket to send the debutant Cameron Green to the pavilion. Maxwell joined Alex Carey to charge this chase. The acceleration from Maxwell and anchor-ship from Carey put Australia in a commanding position as the required run-rate was below 7. The poor running-call cost Australia, Carey’s wicket, and India find themselves on the driver’s seat. Maxwell fought hard with scoring 3rd straight half-century and Bumrah picked him on 59 to give Australia a big blow. India finally hold the nerve in this last-over thriller and defeated Australia by 13 runs in final ODI.
Star-performer of the match
Ravindra Jadeja is our star performer of the match for his all-round show in this match. The left-hander put vital 150 runs with Hardik Pandya to took India to a match-winning total. He scored a fine half-century and remained unbeaten on 66 off 50 balls. With the ball, he bowled his full 10-overs quota and picked Aaron Finch’s crucial wicket.
5 players who made an impact in this game:
Hardik Pandya 92 (76)
R Jadeja 66 (50) & 62/1
Aaron Finch 75 (88)
Shardul Thakur 10-1-51-3
Glenn Maxwell 59 (39)
