India Lay Down The Marker at SCG - Series Ends in a Draw.

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The series was tilted in favour of Australia with the hosts leading 1-0 in a three match series. It was the final match of the t20 series and was being played at SCG. Australia got off to a great start winning the first t20, something which was less likely given form of team India. Nonetheless they did manage to win the first match and end India's t20 series winning streak of 7 series when the match at MCG ended in no result because of the rain. India would have been itching to get on the field in an attempt to level the series and keep up their unbeaten streak intact at least.

I talked about getting a good start from the openers in my previous post and that is what Australia did this time around. Batting first, D Arcy Short and Finch got Australia off to a very good start with first wicket falling at 68 runs. That started a mini collapse as they lost 3 wickets in for just 5 runs. The start provided by the openers was ruined by the batsmen following them as they couldn't capitalise on that. Australia experimented by sending Glenn Maxwell at number 3 and pushing Chris Lynn to number 6 but that failed miserably. Ben McDermott was also promoted to number 4 but he was out for a first ball duck.

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D Arcy Short and Aaron Finch played really good cricket in the powerplay and scored runs off all the three quicks of India. In the previous post I talked about the inability of Australian batsmen to pick Kuldeep Yadav and they proved me right again when Finch didn't read him and gifted his wicket. Short was soon trapped lbw by Krunal Pandya giving Pandya his first wicket of the match. Maxwell and McDermott, both went to the kitty of Krunal Pandya playing loose shots. Most of the wickets taken by Krunal Pandya were because of the mistakes committed by batsmen but credit must be given where necessary, he bowled on a tight line and kept it slower which forced those rash shorts.
Alex Carey played a good hand for the first time in the series scoring 27 runs of just 19 balls before he fell Krunal Pandya trying to send the ball in the stands. Chris Lynn was run out unfortunately and his wicket was the last one to fall. Marcus Stoinis played a very good innings of 25 runs at the end. He was well supported by Coulter-Nile who made a quick 13 of just 7 balls and ensured Australia reached a respectable total of 164 runs in the allotted 20 overs.

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This was the first time in the series that Bhuveneshwar and Bumrah turned out to be expensive without taking any wickets. Both of them are generally very good bowlers especially at the dearth but this time around they struggled to stop the flow of runs from the bats of Stoinis and Coulter-Nile. The third fast bowler, Khaleel also went for runs and he didn't look much impressive this time around. Again the damage was done by Kuldeep Yadav who gave away just 19 runs at took the wicket of Australian skipper. Krunal Pandya took 4 wickets with an economy of 8 rpo but for me, Kuldeep was the best bowler of the innings.

India started their innings aggressively showing their intents from the ball 1. Both Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan stated belting Australian bowlers all around the ground and the batting looked easy while these two were batting. They got off to a flier and reached the score of 60's inside first five overs, that is around 12 rpo. With this run rate they were going to finish the match inside 15 overs but twin strike by Mitchell Starc and Adam Zampa pushed them back.

Mitchell Starc had been brought in the side for the last t20 to boost the side and he did his job very well by just giving away 26 runs in his 4 overs. Both the openers were out on the same team score of 67 with Dhawan making 41 while Sharma chipping in with 23. This brought in Virat Kohli and Lokesh Rahul to the crease and both of them applied a cautious approach for some time. But soon, Lokesh Rahul was caught by Coulter-Nile off Maxwell trying to hit a six. (Rahul hasn't been performing well lately but this guy is immensely talented, he just needs one big innings). Rishabh Pant followed Rahul to the dug out as he was out first ball to Andrew Tye.

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Kohli was joining by cool and composed Dinesh Karthik as the former continued to play his shots to every corner. Seeing Kohli batting very well, Karthik played a very smart role and kept rotating the strike to give his skipper as many deliveries as possible. Kohli brought up his fifty in the process and the duo made sure they loose no further wickets and got over the line comfortably.

The fast bowlers of Australia except Mitchell Starc struggled to make an impact in this match and in the whole series as well. Adam Zampa again, was their best bowler who took one wicket giving away just 19 runs in his 4 overs. The part time spinner, Glenn Maxwell also bowled well and picked up a wicket for just 26 runs. Coulter-Nile and Stoinis were very expensive and I guess Australia missed the trick by just playing one genuine spinner. The result might have been different had Australia opted for another spinner in place of Coulter-Nile.

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Krunal Pandya was declared Man of the Match for taking 4 wickets while Shikhar Dhawan claimed Man of the Series award for his great performance with the bat throughout the series. The four match test series will now start on 6th of December at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney.

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