Australia again outclasses India at Sydney and wins the ODI series. Aaron Finch after winning the toss had no second thoughts about batting first and setting a mammoth total. The hosts started off where they left in the last match and scored with ease against the Indian bowlers.
The tone was again set by their two great openers Aaron Finch and Warner who again showed their class. The pair recorded yet another 100 runs partnership against India and laid the platform for their gun middle order. After Warner fell for 83, entered Steve Smith who for the second game in a row took the game away from the visitors.
Australia Wins The ODI Series
The 31-year-old scored his third ODI century against India at SCG and made a statement. Smith scored a chanceless 104 runs in mere 64 balls as Indian bowlers had absolutely no answers. Glenn Maxwell and Marnus Labuschagne too had fun and stroke the fifties as Australia set India a daunting target of 390 runs.
The Indian batsmen had to take risks from the get-go to stay alive in the series. Shikhar Dhawan and Mayank Agarwal started off well but failed to capitalize on their starts. Then came Indian skipper Virat Kohli to the crease and gave India an outside chance of winning the match. His partnership with KL Rahul was the highlight of the match for India as they smoked the Aussie bowlers to all parts of the ground.
Unfortunately team India just conceded too many runs if the first half and batsmen had an unrealistic target to level the series. Kohli missed out on a well deserved century as he departed for 80 runs. Eventually, in the closing stages, KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya tried their level best but India fell short of the target by 51 runs.
Very Pleased To Wrap Up The Series – Aaron Finch
Australia wrapped up the series 2-0 and the India side be looking to avoid a whitewash in the final ODI at Canberra. Interestingly this is India’s 5th consecutive ODI loss and they will have to go to the drawing board and rethink their strategies going ahead.
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Meanwhile, here’s what the winning captain Aaron Finch said in the post-match presentation.
“It was a perfect performance with the bat. There was no extra talk or game plan. Very pleased to wrap it up in two games and win the series. A quicker inning from me would’ve been better, but it’s a bit of a trade-off and I think we set the foundation. Smithy was incredible as usual, and Warner got it off the middle every time as well. Moises bowled really well defensively including his cutters, and as Virat said, we got a bit of a blueprint from Hardik, by taking the pace off the ball”.
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