Pandya delivers sucker punch

Subhash Rajta

Tribune News Service

Indore, september 24

Australia got off to a steady start, India were off to a flyer. Australia gained the momentum gradually, India sustained the tempo. Both the teams were neck-and-neck at the end of the 38th over — Australia were 224/2, and India were 227/4. 

It was essentially what the teams did after this stage that decided the fate of the match, and the series as well. While Australia undid the good work done by their top-order, scoring just 69 runs in the last 12 overs to end up with 293, the hosts stayed the course and knocked off the required runs with 2.1 overs to spare for a series-clinching five-wicket win.

A target of 294, which could have easily been around 350, wasn’t going to put the strong Indian batting line-up under too much duress in view of the flat track and rather small boundaries. The difficulty quotient of the task reduced even further when Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane gave India a rollicking start, gathering 139 runs for the first wicket in just 21.4 overs. While Rohit smashed a 62-ball 71, studded with six boundaries and four sixes, Rahane made 70 off 76 with nine boundaries.

Despite such a rousing start, India appeared in a bit of trouble when they lost skipper Virat Kohli (28) and Kedar Jadhav (2) in quick succession. If Australia were to keep the series alive, they needed to make the most of this little opportunity by either choking the flow of runs or picking up a few more wickets. They failed to do either as India’s all-rounder Hardik Pandya, instead of bogging down in the wake of the twin blows, rather upped the ante with a steady flow of sixes and boundaries. And when he perished for a 72-ball 78, studded with five boundaries and four sixes, India needed just 10 runs more to win. Manish Pandey, who remained unbeaten on a crucial 32-ball 36, and MS Dhoni finished the formalities to give India a 3-0 lead in the five-match series.

Finch shows up in style

Earlier, Aaron Finch struck a fine hundred to help Australia post a total that might have tested the strong Indian batting line-up elsewhere. Coming back from a calf- injury that he aggravated ahead of the series and missed the first two matches, Finch was the best Australian batsman on view. 

Against the wrist spinners, who have been giving nightmares to his teammates, he looked in complete control, repeatedly smashing them down the ground for boundaries and sixes. While he scored 25 off 27 balls against Yuzvendra Chahal, he was even more severe on Kuldeep Yadav, plundering 41 off 26 balls. Interestingly, unlike his teammates, he hadn’t faced the wrist spinners in the nets at all, yet he showed no tentativeness or fear against them.

His 125-ball 124 and the two partnerships he shared with David Warner (42) and Steve Smith (63), worth 70 and 154 runs, respectively, had put Australia in a commanding position. At 224/1 in the 38th over, with both Finch and Smith going great guns and the spinners tamed, Australia had a great chance to target 350. 

But then Finch fell while attempting to send Yadav over the ropes, and the tempo of the game changed in a flash. With his dismissal, the flow of runs choked, and the spinners suddenly started looking menacing.  When Yadav picked Smith on the last ball of the 42nd over, and Chahal got the struggling Glenn Maxwell stumped on the first ball of the 43rd over, India were back in the contest. 

And then Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah bowled brilliantly, not allowing the batsmen to open their arms at all.

"Coming back from difficult situations has been a feature of this team. Wrist spinners need to be backed, they won’t always get grip from the wicket, but they possess the ability to get wickets. We need a guy like Pandya, we’ve been missing an explosive allrounder, great asset for Indian cricket." — Virat Kohli