Pune:The confident Aussies who kept the momentum in their side defeated the World Champions India by 72 runs taking a lead of 1-0 in the 7 match ODI series.
Electing to bat, the visitors piled up a mammoth 304 for eight relying on captain George Bailey’s 85 and Aaron Finch’s 72 and then shot India out for 232 in 49.4 overs to take 1-0 lead in the seven-match ODI series.
The Indian run chase under lights at the MCA Stadium never get going against the sustained and aggressive Australian bowling attack.
The visiting side, who were handed a four-wicket defeat in the one-off T20 International at Rajkot on October 10, bowled a disciplined line and length and choked the Indian batsmen in the middle overs.
Chasing 305 for a win, India folded up for 232 in the last over.
Pacer Mitchell Johnson was the one to strike with the fierce pace. Mitchell Johnson hadn’t played the Rajkot T20 in which India chased 200-plus. He took the first new ball tonight and delivered a searing spell of extreme pace, hitting speeds over 150kph regularly. He also took the key wicket of Yuvraj, the architect of the Rajkot win who came in at Raina’s fall, setting him up with a couple of full deliveries before squaring him up with a shortish one and inducing a poke to the wicketkeeper.
Kohli looked the most solid of the India batsmen and made the most runs for his side, playing with his usual limited-overs solidity. As he went past fifty, Kohli seemed to be hitting the cruise mode that he gets in during big chases. His defence was as sure as his driving, but even he was set up smartly, this time by Shane Watson. Three successive short balls – the last of which Kohli went to pull and missed – were followed by a good length delivery. Kohli played across the line and was trapped in front.
Ravindra Jadeja had raced through his overs to deliver a miserly analysis of 10-0-35-1, but faced with varied fast bowling under pressure, he again came across as a limited batsman. A mistimed slog to mid-on ended his misery.
MS Dhoni, who had hung on grimly for a while, got the ball of the match from Clint McKay that pitched on good length and straightened past his defensive jab to uproot off stump. India were 196 for 7, and the Pune crowd had started exiting the stadium.
