India won its second consecutive ODI against Australia in the 3-match ODI series to become World’s No.1 ODI team before the ultimate showdown begins. Madhya Pradesh’s Holkar Stadium witnessed KL Rahul’s Men in Blue clinch the series by 2-0 without Virat Kohli and without Rohit Sharma.
This is good signs for India who have been looking for a similar run against Big teams. They did win the Asia Cup at Sri-Lanka but that was Asia and the time is reaching closer for the Cricket World Cup. The tournament returns after 12 years with a pretty much similar anticipation among the fans as last time.
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Rohit Sharma’s intent will be the same as MS Dhoni but the former has a whole different team in his disposal. Some might even say Rohit has a stronger squad and if that is the case the current series against Australia has to be a good preparatory series for all the selected players to stretch their arms and make a statement.
Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill became the first ones to come under the spotlight as both scored powerd packed Centuries. It was Iyer’s 4th Century of his career but it was Gill’s 5th Century of the year. The Duo departed for 105 and 104 but the Holkar audience still had a lot to witness.
KL Rahul came and started smashing the Aussie bowling attack then Ishan Kishan did the same before the Surya Kumar Yadav show stared. The 33-year-old picked up his 2nd consecutive ODI fifty in 24 balls, joining the list of Fastest 50 scorers in ODIs for the Men in Blue.
He departed after smashing 72 off just 37, helping India set up 400 as the total. But that wasn’t what Australia were asked to chase as weird September Rain had its say and the target was shrinked to 317 in 33 overs.
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In reponse, Mathew Short fell short today and got out for 9 off Prasidh Krishna who also removed Steve Smith in the following ball for a Golden duck. Marnus Labuschagne (27) and David Warner (53) got going but not enough to lay a concrete foundation.
None of the Australia’s middle-order batters – Josh Inglis, Alex Carey and Cameron Green were able to do anything positive either but Tailenders Sean Abott and Josh Hazlewood took the visitors from 140/8 to 217/10 with Ravindra Jadeja and Ravi Ashwin picking a treble while Krishna and Shami took 2 & 1 respectively.
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