50 overs: Australia 293 for 6 (Finch 124, Smith 63, Bumrah 2-52, Kuldeep 2-75) v India
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Between January 2013 and the start of this series, India-Australia ODIs had produced an average first-innings score of 321. The first two ODIs bucked that high-scoring trend, with India defending 281 and then 252, but a belter of a pitch in Indore seemed set to catalyse a return to the old order. Coming back from a calf injury, Aaron Finch scored his eighth ODI hundred and put on 154 for the second wicket with Steven Smith to project visions of 350 into Australia’s minds.
But Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, who had until then looked powerless to overcome the flat pitch and small boundaries, turned the innings around with three wickets in the space of 4.2 overs. Australia had slumped from 224 for 1 to 243 for 4, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah ensured they wouldn’t recover their lost momentum, conceding only 38 in the last six overs to restrict the visitors to 293 for 6.
Having touched the six-an-over mark after the 36th over, Australia never did so again, managing only 77 in the last 14 overs.
At that 36-over mark, Kuldeep had seemed the unlikeliest bowler to turn the match around. Finch had just hit his third six off the left-arm wristspinner, a miscued loft that might have been caught at long-off on a bigger ground. Apart from that one shot, Finch had picked Kuldeep’s variations better than pretty much any Australian batsman in this series, and looked utterly in control against him. Kuldeep’s figures at that point read 7-0-55-0.
And yet – perhaps reckoning that his part-timers were unlikely to do any better on this surface – Virat Kohli persisted with Kuldeep, and he struck in his next over, Finch picking out deep midwicket with a slog-sweep.
India suddenly looked transformed. Hardik Pandya and Bumrah kept Glenn Maxwell, who was sent in at No. 4, in check with their changes of pace, and then Chahal, returning to the attack in the 41st over, dangled his legbreaks wide of off stump, inviting the batsmen to reach out and hit him against the turn. The 3.1 overs following Finch’s dismissal only produced 12 runs, and Smith, jumping out to the returning Kuldeep in the 42nd over, failed to reach the pitch of a wrong’un and holed out to long-off.
Maxwell, kept to 5 off his first 12 balls, followed next ball, leaving his crease too early to Chahal and giving him the opportunity to slip another wide legbreak past his edge. Dhoni completed his 100th ODI stumping for India, and Chahal had dismissed Maxwell for the third time in three innings.
More to follow…
Karthik Krishnaswamy is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo