Picture : Twitter/ BCCI
Making some changes in the bowling department paid rich dividends as India won the third ODI against Australia at Canberra by 13 runs at the Manuka Oval to salvage some pride. Australia however won the series 2-1.
India made changes Navdeep Saini , Mayank Agarwal, Yuzvendra Chahal made way for Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill . Australia were without David Warner, Pat Cummins (rested), Mitchell Starc (injured). In came Ashton Agar, Sean Abbott, Cameron Green.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat first. Shikhar Dhawan (16) and Shubman Gill (33), Shreyas Iyer (19). Skipper Virat Kohli stroked his way to a fine 63 and in the process also becoming the fastest batsman to reach the 12, 000 ODI run mark. Shreyas Iyer (19), K L Rahul (5) fell cheaply. But the Indian innings got the momentum thanks to fine unbeaten partnership between Hardik Pandya unbeaten 92 and Ravindra Jadeja unbeaten on 66. The duo put on 150 runs in 108 balls and helped India reach an imposing 302 / 5 in 50 overs.
For Australia the wicket-takers were – Josh Hazlewood 1/66 ( 10 overs), Sean Abbott 1/84( 10 overs), Ashton Agar 2/44 (10 overs), Adam Zampa 1/45 ( 10 overs),while Glenn Maxwell 0/27 ( 5 overs), Moises Henriques 0/7 (1 over)went wicket-less.
In reply , Australia lost promoted Marnus Labuschagne out for 7 . Steve Smith who scored back-to-back hundreds was out for 7. But skipper Aaron Finch ( dropped on 22 by Shikhar Dhawan and surviving a run-out chance) anchored the innings with yet another fine inning of 75. Finch has been brilliant win the series with scores of 114, 60, 75. Moises Henriques (22), young Cameron Green (21), Alex Carey (38) got going but could not carry on. Glenn Maxwell once again threatened to take the game away with a blistering 59 off 38 balls. Bumrah took his prized wicket. Ashton Agar chipped in with (28) but Australia fell 13 runs short . Bowled out for 289.
For India all bowlers took wickets. On debut T Natarajan bowled much better than the figures suggest with 2/70 (10 overs), Jasprit Bumrah 2/43 (9.3 overs), Shardul Thakur 3/51 (10 overs) , Kuldeep Yadav 1/57 (10 overs), Ravindra Jadeja 1/ 62 (10 overs)
The teams now face-off in the three match T20 series with the first one on 4th at Canberra followed by ones in Sydney on 6th and on 8th.
