As expected, the second one-dayer of the tri-series went down to the wire but it was Australia which emerged as the winner at the end and clinched the encounter by four wickets, courtesy a fighting knock from opener Aaron Finch.
For India, Rohit Sharma smashed a fluent century but it couldn’t stop Australia from registering their second successive win in the tri-series. Rohit scored his sixth ODI century, still India fell 20-30 runs shorts to the total they could have had.
Finch played a spotless innings and provided no opening to the touring party. He also stitched a 101-run partnership with Steve Smith to take the game completely away from India.
India did manage to pick a couple of quick wickets by sending Smith and Finch back to the pavilion, still Australia chased the target with six balls remaining through Brad Haddin and James Faulkner.
Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami and Axar Patel picked one wicket apiece, while Umesh Yadav struck twice and delivered a fine spell with the old ball to knot the Aussie batsmen.
Earlier, MS Dhoni elected to bat first but his decision didn’t pay dividend as India lost Shikhar Dhawan in the first over of the match. Dhawan was sent packing by Mitchell Starc when the Indian opener pounced upon an away-going delivery.
The touring party also lost men-in-form Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli pretty cheaply but Rohit held one end firmly. Suresh Raina, who had a torrid outing in the Sydney Test, showed why he one of the best middle-order batsmen right now.
Raina, along with Rohit, slowly built the innings by stitching a 126-run partnership for the fourth wicket and rescued India from a peculiar situation. The southpaw, meanwhile, completed his 33rd half-century as India looked set for a more than decent total.
Starc broke the partnership by dismissing Raina, as he completed his fifty, while brought MS Dhoni on the crease. Dhoni looked in fine touch and played some masculine drives but chopped one delivery from Starc onto the stumps.
After Dhoni’s dismissal, India lost the way as Starc rattled India’s lower-order by picking quick wickets. Starc got Axar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rohit to complete his best bowling figures in ODIs as India only managed to score 267 in 50 overs.
