India Beaten, Again
Holding an extreme view and carting the ball out of the park is what interests him most. He is a hard hitter at all times. Fasten your seatbelts and read.
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By Slogger
First publised on 2020-11-29 20:11:53
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Holding an extreme view and carting the ball out of the park is what interests him most. He is a hard hitter at all times. Fasten your seatbelts and read.
View all posts by this Author
If you allow the other team to score 389 runs, it is very difficult to chase it and win. The Indian team did not learn anything from the walloping it received in the first ODI and made the same mistakes in the second to lose a high scoring match by 51 runs. Although the match turned after Moises Henriques took a stunning catch to dismiss Virat Kohli who was batting sensibly and beautifully, the way the Indian batsmen threw away their wickets to unforced errors after getting a start was pathetic. Earlier, the Indian bowlers continued to make the same mistakes of not bowling to their field settings and allowed too many liberties to the Australian batsmen. In the process, the Aussies toyed with the Indian bowling attack, none of the batsmen seemed to be in any difficulty and they amassed a huge total.
While David Warner and Aaron Finch once again gave the Australians a solid and fruitful start with a 100-plus partnership, it was Steve Smith, as usual, who was instrumental in making India look like novices. The Indian bowlers had no clue where to bowl at him and Smith found the gaps at will. Anything up was driven forcefully and anything short was punched away effortlessly. It seemed Smith was batting at the nets and he had a century against his name the second time in two matches. The later Australian batsmen too made merry and while it looked like they would score 360/70, they ended up with 389.
To be fair to India, they came out wth a positive frame of mind and both Shikhar Dhawan and Mayank Agarwal batted sensibly in the beginning. In the first powerplay, India were ahead of the Australians. But soon afterwards, Dhawan played an atrocious shot and Agarwal followed suit in the next over. These double blows set India back and although Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer and later K L Rahul tried their best, it was too much for them. Still, one can presume that the match would have gone to the wire if Henriques had not taken that awesome catch. Kohli played a shot uppishly through midwicket in a gap. Henriques was a good 10 feet away. But he pounced on the ball as if his life depended on it and took a lovely catch. Kohli was disappointed. In contrast, the Indian fielding was amateurish. Catches were dropped and runs were leaked. If India continues in this fashion on the rest of the tour, they are not likely to win any matches for this Australian side will not give them any quarter.
