A 61-run stand for the fifth wicket between Kedar Jadhav and Manish Pandey had given the home team hope but both departed in the space of four balls. Jadhav, who made a fighting 67, was caught on the boundary off a slower ball from Richardson, at which stage India needed 49 off 27. Pandey was bowled for an entertaining 33, Pat Cummins hitting the top of legstump. M.S. Dhoni was given a hero’s welcome by the crowd, but struggled to time the ball before dragging Richardson onto the stumps for 13. Virat Kohli’s men still lead the five-game series 3-1, heading into the final fixture at Nagpur.
India had stormed out of the traps, the openers batting with delightful ease under the lights during their stand of 106. Ajinkya Rahane played a series of delicious shots, slashing Pat Cummins past point one moment, deftly steering him wide of third man the next.
Rohit Sharma was not far behind, effortlessly clearing the ropes. Adam Zampa, who must have expected some pain this evening, was heaved twice over cowcorner as Rohit raised his fifty and team’s hundred in the 17th over.
Things were going swimmingly well when Rahane fell, caught at long-off for 53. Rohit was joined by Virat Kohli, and the two were soon involved in a mix-up — not for the first time — that cost the former his wicket.
Steve Smith produced a stunning, diving effort at point to stop Kohli’s cut, and as the captain watched the ball, Rohit charged to the striker’s end. He turned around but was never going to make his ground. Eight balls later, Kohli was bowled for 21 trying to steer CoulterNile through third-man.
Hardik Pandya walked out to resounding cheers from the stadium, and he did not disappoint. It took him only four balls to unleash his first six, a thunderous slap off Travis Head that clattered into the members’ stand.
There was more joy: consecutive sixes off Zampa that cleared the fence by some distance. The leg-spinner had the last laugh, though, when Pandya holed out to long-off. There was finally some comfort for Zampa, and some for Australia.
Earlier, the visitor set off at a brisk pace after winning the toss and electing to bat first. India made three changes, resting Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav, and fielding Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Axar Patel instead.
India’s new-ball pair — Umesh in particular — was wayward and Australia’s openers cashed in, drilling anything wide through the covers.
India clearly lacked control in the absence of Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah, and things scarcely improved after the first 10 overs. Axar Patel was brought on and Warner freed his arms at once. A short delivery was thumped over mid-wicket and a couple of wide offerings were gratefully squeezed to the point boundary.
Yuzvendra Chahal did not escape punishment either. Warner twice slog-swept him into the stands as Australia motored to 124 without loss in 20 overs. The 150 came up not long after, when Finch unfurled a sublime insideout drive for six off Axar. Warner reached his 100 off 103 balls as the openers broke an Australian record for first-wicket partnerships against India, surpassing the 212 Geoff Marsh and David Boon put together in Jaipur 31 years ago.
It was Kedar Jadhav who finally broke through with his flat, low-arm off-breaks, having Warner caught at long on. Finch fell five balls later, dragging a leg-cutter from Umesh into Pandya’s hands at mid-on. When Steve Smith was out for three, spooning a simple catch to Kohli on the leg-side to give Umesh his 100th one-day wicket, Australia had lost three for five in the space of 14 balls.
Yet another collapse seemed imminent but Peter Handscomb and Travis Head batted with patience, adding 63 runs for the fourth wicket. Australia: Aaron Finch c Pandya b Umesh 94 (96b, 10x4, 3x6), David Warner c Axar b Jadhav 124 (119b, 12x4, 4x6), Travis Head c Rahane b Umesh 29 (38b, 1x4, 1x6), Steve Smith c Kohli b Umesh 3 (5b), Peter Handscomb b Umesh 43 (30b, 3x4, 1x6), Marcus Stoinis (not out) 15 (9b, 1x4, 1x6), Matthew Wade (not out) 3 (3b); Extras (b-4, lb-7, w-12): 23; Total (for five wkts. in 50 overs): 334. Fall of wickets: 1-231 (Warner, 34.6 overs), 2-231 (Finch, 35.5), 3-236 (Smith, 37.1), 4-299 (Head, 46.5), 5-319 (Handscomb, 48.5).
India bowling: Shami 10-162-0; Umesh 10-0-71-4; Axar 10-0-66-0; Pandya 5-0-32-0; Chahal 8-0-54-0; Jadhav 7-0-38-1.
India: Ajinkya Rahane c Finch b Richardson 53 (66b, 6x4, 1x6), Rohit Sharma (run out) 65 (55b, 1x4, 5x6), Virat Kohli b CoulterNile 21 (21b, 3x4), Hardik Pandya c Warner b Zampa 41 (40b, 1x4, 3x6), Kedar Jadhav c Thursday’s match presented India’s middle-order the perfect opportunity to take the side home and impress skipper Virat Kohli. For a brief while Hardik Pandya, Kedhar Jadhav and Manish Pandey seemed up to the task before Australia pegged the side back.
“That’s exactly what we were discussing in the change room,” said Kohli. “When all of us had gotten out, Kedar and Hardik were batting, it was the ideal situation to understand how the game can be taken till the end. They did really good job Finch b Richardson 67 (69b, 7x4, 1x6), Manish Pandey b Cummins 33 (25b, 3x4, 1x6), M.S. Dhoni b Richardson 13 (10b, 1x4, 1x6), Axar Patel c (sub) b Coulter-Nile 5 (6b), Mohd. Shami (not out) 6 (6b, 1x4), Umesh Yadav (not out) 2 (2b); Extras (lb-4, w-3): 7; Total (for eight wkts in 50 overs): 313.
Fall of wickets: 1-106 (Rahane,18.2), 2-135 (Rohit, 22.6), 3-147 (Kohli, 24.2), 4-225 (Pandya, 37.1), 5-286 (Jadhav, 45.4), 6-289 (Manish,46.1), 7301 (Dhoni, 47.5), 8-306 (Axar, 49.1).
Australia bowling: Cummins 10-0-59-1, Coulter-Nile 10-056-2, Richardson 10-0-58-3, Stoinis 4.5-0-34-0, Finch 0.1-01-0, Zampa 9-0-63-1, Head 6-0-38-0.
Toss: Australia. Man-of-the-match: Australia won by 21 runs, trails five-match series 1-3. with that partnership. So there are positives. The wicket was such that one team had to bat better. But towards the end, Australia were quite good with their bowling.”
On resting two frontline bowlers in Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kohli said: “No. I don’t think [resting them was wrong]. We have won the series and we need to test bench strength. Umesh [Yadav] and [Mohd] Shami bowled well. Maybe personally Umesh would have liked to give away less runs. But we only lost by 20 odd and bowlers have to be given that room.”
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