India v Australia 2017, 3rd ODI- Who Said What

From a team full of stars, the men from down under have reached such a low that they are on the verge of receiving a thumping whitewash. The legendary Australian skippers like Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting must be embarrassed by Steve Smith’s mess. After losing the first two ODI encounters against India, it was expected that the Kangaroos will lose the series.

But in the third games, which was a do or die match for them, a strong and resilient show was expected. In return, they offered their fans a ‘no-show’, as the cricket experts all over the world have started generating post-mortem reports of the team. Winning the toss here at the Holkar Cricket Ground in Indore, the opening combination of David Warner and Aaron Finch started to accelerate from the very beginning.

Whether it is the lack of experience or the dearth of talent remains a different question, but the team has often lost wickets when they needed to hold on to them. After brilliant knocks from the top 3, the middle-order collapsed and all the Men in Yellow could only manage was a target of 293. Not that it was too small a target, but it was definitely too small a target in front of the humongous Indian batting lineup.

But a good show from the Aussie pacers would have made the encounter cherishable, but Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane relished batting on this wicket and thrashed the Aussie bowlers. The end result was that, by the time the first wicket fell, Kohli’s men were already in the driver’s seat.

Stunning knock from the man of the hour Hardik Pandya and some late fireworks from Manish Pandey meant that India have already won the series, and must now be looking for a whitewash. As far as the Aussies are concerned, they must pull up their socks to dodge the severe humiliation which is coming their way. For his 78 runs and the crucial wicket of David Warner, Pandya was adjudged the Man of the Match.

Virat Kohli

“They batted really well, but we knew that if we get two, three wickets, we could pull it back. I was thinking this was a 330-340 wicket. The bowlers stood up when we wanted them to. That’s been the feature of this team. Coming back from difficult situations, giving us more belief that we can do it again and again from any tough situation that we are put in. Wrist spinners need to be backed. I felt they were 35-40 runs short. That gave us a lot of confidence.”

Kohli praised the ‘fighting till the last ball’ spirit of his superb bowling unit.

“Rohit and Rahane were very good and then Hardik Pandya, only he can do what he does when he bats like that. He (Pandya) is a star. He possess ability with the bat, ball and in the field as well. We have been wanting a guy like that for the past five, six years. A really explosive all-rounder is what we were missing and he’s giving us that balance. A great asset for Indian cricket and I wish him all the best for the future. His promotion today was Ravi Bhai’s (Ravi Shastri) thought. He felt we needed to attack the spinner. We totally back him and he’s a hard working guy.

On experimenting futher in the series, the Indian skipper said:

We may give opportunities for people from now, but all 15 guys know that we got to be ruthless once we step onto the field. I know it won’t happen every single day, but at least that mindset is there. Credit to the whole squad for the series win, but the journey stops only after the final game.”

Great with the ball and even greater with the bat, Pandya is certainly an asset for not only India but any team he features in. No doubt Kohli is proud to have a player of Pandya’s merit in the team, who can perform equally well in all the three departments of the game.

Hardik Pandya

It feels good. Almost through but I would want finish the match next time. I saw the promotion as an opportunity rather than a surprise. I wanted to target the left-arm spinner. When I got the sixes, I knew that I can play a few dot balls as well. I try to contribute in every way I can. I want to get better, there’s always scope for improvement.

On being provided with an opportunity to prove his temperament at No.4, he delivered again with a thumping 78 and almost saw the team through.

Steve Smith

I thought we set it up beautifully with the bat to launch at the back end, but I thought the Indian bowlers executed really well and we executed poorly. We couldn’t get the boundaries. 330+ might have been a different result, but credit to India. Hardik was magnificent and Rohit and Jinks (Rahane) were fabulous too. I thought Finchy was magnificent, it was a great hundred. The pitch was pretty much the same for both teams until 35 overs, it did slow down towards the end. We weren’t good enough to get the boundaries and get the score we needed.

Smith certainly feels like a ‘lost in the wild’ man, and has an overwhelmingly difficult task at hand. While he praised Hardik’s efforts, he gave today’s tragic hero Aaron Finch the credit he deserved for his 124 runs, that too in his comeback match.