After winning the toss and opting to bat first in the series-deciding ODI at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, Australia have put on 286/9 in their quota of 50 overs. Steve Smith’s century (131), along with healthy contributions from Marnus Labuschagne (54) and Alex Carey (35) propelled the Aussies to a fighting total at this venue.
India were off to a good start with the ball in the third and the final as they dismissed both the dangerous openers within the 10 overs. While Mohammed Shami pitched the ball in the corridor of uncertainty and swung it away from David Warner who just managed an outside edge and the regulation catch for KL Rahul to take the first wicket, Aaron Finch was run out owing to a terrible misunderstanding between the skipper and Steve Smith, resulting in both the batsmen coming at one end.
It was then that Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne took it upon them to revive the Australian innings. The duo played shots around the ground as they added 127 runs for the third wicket and to keep Australia pretty much in control.
However, just when the Aussies would have liked to accelerate and keep the total beyond the reach of the Indian batsmen, Labuschange tried to play an aerial inside out drive that was caught inches above the ground by a diving Virat Kohli. Finch sent Mitchell Starc to get them some quick runs but the experiment failed as Jadeja dismissed him in the same over.
Alex Carey and Steve Smith then did manage to take the inning forward by adding 58 runs for the fifth wicket but once Carey departed, followed by Ashton Turner and Smith, Australia could not really get a big finish that they were looking for and ended up well within the 300 run mark.
For India, Mohammed Shami was the pick of the bowlers as he picked up four wickets for 63 runs. Ravindra Jadeja also was impressive and ended up figures of 2 for 44. Although Jasprit Bumrah did not have anything to show in the wickets column, he bowled his 10 overs for just 38 runs- exerting pressure from one end and not giving the opposition any free runs.
However, India gave as many as 27 runs as extras and in case the match goes down to the wire, this could well go on to haunt them.