India vs Australia, 2020-21: 2nd ODI – Who Said What

The second ODI took place between India and Australia in the Sydney Cricket ground, Australia. It was another bad day at the office for Indian bowlers today as Australia won the high scoring contest by 51 runs. While batting first, Australia posted gigantic 389 runs on the board after choosing to walk with willows first. Just like the first ODI, the opening stand by David Warner (83 off 77) and Aaron Finch (60 off 69) was fierce enough to set the tone.

Steve Smith was named as the player of the match. Smith (104 off 64) didn’t leave any stone unturned to break the back of Indian bowlers as he stole the limelight with yet another century. Marnus Labuschagne (70 off 61) and Glenn Maxwell (63 off 29) were other stars that shined today from Australia’s star-studded batting set up. India’s bowling section remained weak where Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, and Hardik Pandya got one wicket each under their belt.

While chasing the heavy target, Mayank Agarwal and Shikhar Dhawan kicked off the perfect tone, but it couldn’t last long. Though skipper Virat Kohli came up with a sublime 89, it fell way short ahead of the massive target. KL Rahul played a significant knock of 76 runs to support the struggling side. Adam Zampa turned out to be the most economical one, while Pat Cummins clinched three wickets on his name.

Losing skipper, Virat Kohli said-

Completely outplayed. I think with the ball we were not that effecitve. Didn’t hit the areas we wanted to consistently. They’ve got a strong batting lineup and know the angles. Their total was a bit too steep, if you see we got 340 and still lost by 51 runs. With the areas they bowled, they were in a position to create chances and with those chances taken, they were on top. (on Hardik bowling) I think he gave away a bit of a bowling plan on this pitch, a lot of them bowled cutters (smiles). His bowling was out of nowhere I just asked him. KL and I thought even 100 in the last ten overs with Hardik to come was achievable. If KL and me had stuck around till the 40th over, we could have put them under pressure. The wicket was beautiful to bat on.

Player of the match, Steve Smith said-

Another great foundation set by Finchy and Davey. Let me go hard at the back end. The last two games, the boys have got us off to terrific starts. We know India have a good batting line-up so we needed big totals. I tried to whack the ball too hard in the IPL but I’ve started hitting it with more finesse I should say, which is working for me. Nice to score some runs again for the team and get us to a good total. I thought the boys were outstanding in the field as well.

Winning skipper, Aaron Finch said-

It was I guess (perfect perfomance with the bat). Anytime you get in the high 300s is good. Very pleased to wrap it up in two wins. No idea (on Warner’s fitness). We’ve got to reshuffle it around, I don’t think he’ll be available. Bit quicker would have been nice (on his own batting) but laid the foundation for the guys at the back end to come and play free cricket. The way Davey played up front was unbelievable. Then Smithy played out of his skin for two matches in a row. Henriques bowled to a simple plan and changed his pace a lot. As Virat said, we probably got a blueprint with Hardik’s bowling, he was really hard to hit with pace off deliveries.