Australia’s inability to seize crunch moments, cost them the series

The Indian ODI team didn’t face many difficulties when they recently toured West Indies. They were clinical in Sri Lanka thrashing them 5-0. Before the start of this India-Australia one-day series much was expected out of it in terms of the contest but it wasn’t so. If observed closely, the mighty Australians haven’t played that bad as the scoreline suggests, it’s just that they have failed to capitalize on the moments when Team India was down and looking for answers.

They let India come back in the game. Sometimes it was their lacklustre efforts in the field, sometimes their inability to play quality spin and sometimes the brilliance of India’s newest sensation, Hardik Pandya. The series is gone and here we will look at the moments in each of the ODI played where Australia let go the match and in turn, the series.

1st ODI- Chepauk, Chennai

As visitors, you walk into a ground where you have never lost an ODI match with an enviable record of 4-0, you are the current world champions, you lose the toss and rattle the opposition by pace, swing, and bounce and reduce them to 87-5 in the 22nd over. Dream stuff!

You cannot be defeated from there, can you? Yes, you can. When you let your opponent come back into the game by dropping two catches at slip, including Pandya, along with some not to smart bowling changes in the death overs (remember how Dhoni left James Faulkner helpless). India pounced on the opportunities like a panther and made 281/7 in 50 overs riding on Pandya’s 83 off 67 balls and MS Dhoni’s composed knock, the thalaiva for Chennai’s crowd.

It was always going to be a difficult chase with India’s bowling armoury, how often do we say that about India’s bowling. But wait, the unplanned happened again and rain gods decide to give you another chance! The game was cut short and Australia’s revised target was 164 in 21 overs. Considering the amount of T20 leagues Australians have played across the globe and their IPL experience, it should have been a cakewalk.

Rain curtailed games always help the team chasing. 164 in 21 overs, everyone would expect Australia to get there but their batsmen were bamboozled by spin, played haphazardly and threw the game away. They never got going in their chase and it was only Glenn Maxwell, who, for a short period took the fight to the opposition and got stuck in Kuldeep Yadav, hitting three consecutive sixes.

One shot too many, succumbing to pressure which was created by the fall of wickets at the other end, he finally made an error, fetching a wide one from Chahal and miscuing it to Manish Pandey at long-on. The fight ended and so did Australia’s dominance in Chepauk.

2nd ODI- The Eden Gardens, Kolkata

At the start of the match, there was pressure on Australia as well as Ajinkya Rahane. One was trying to justify their tag of world champions and the other was trying to make a point that he is suitable for ODIs as well, even after playing 80 odd games. Aahhh, this game is cruel.

It was a scorching afternoon in Kolkata and almost all the players from the 5th largest continent in the world struggled with fitness but their tussle and scrimmage with the bat were more worrisome. Batting first, India made 252 in 50 overs and would have thought that they were 20-30 runs short. Australia was well in control at 85/2 when Travis Head ran out of luck and played a full toss straight to the fielder at midwicket.

Things changed rather quickly and in a span of 15 overs they were reduced to 148/8, courtesy a brilliant effort from young wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who became only the third Indian ever to take a hat-trick in ODI cricket. Indians bowled wicket to wicket and the Australians made some poor decisions with the bat and when you do that against a quality team like India, there is no going back. Aussies lost the match by 50 runs with 41 balls remaining. The other batsmen could have been rather sensible in their approach with Stoinis batting fluently as his innings progressed.

And at the end of the day, Ajinkya Rahane, after playing some exquisite cover drives made it clear that he belonged here and Australia was left stranded and clueless. And once again it was the combination of poor shot selection and tight bowling that brought the downfall of the visitors.

3rd ODI- Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore

Already 0-2 down in the series, looking down at the barrel you’d want few things to go your way and what better than winning the toss and electing to bat first on an absolute belter with 55-60 meter square boundaries. Surely it was going to be a run feast inspired by the return of their star batsman Aaron Finch and how well did he play.

The 2 openers, Warner and Finch started cautiously and added 70 runs for the 1st wicket. They were 224/2 in 37.5 overs and looked all set for an ostentatious finish to get something around 330-340 or maybe more but as fate would have had it, the middle order collapsed once again and once again it was a combination of some pronounced bowling in death overs by Bhuvi and Bumrah and poor shot selection by the batters. You could sense panic in their batting approach as they were to catch a flight back to Sydney. 293/6 in 50 overs was all they could manage.

The wicket in the 2nd innings played much better under the lights as was anticipated by Indian skipper Virat Kohli. There was absolutely no swing and seam movement for Pat Cummins and Nathan Coulter-Nile. With the ball doing nothing, Indians made a mockery of the Australian bowling attack, especially Rohit Sharma, treating the fast bowlers with disdain.

Rahane too got into the grove and started playing freely as the openers added 139 runs for the 1st wicket before Rohit Sharma threw it away and within a span of 8 runs India lost both their openers. After that, Once Virat and Kedar Jadhav got out in quick succession, Australia could tighten screws on the Indians but guess what, Steve Smith dropped Pandya, again! Smith wasn’t gracious enough to accept that gift from Pandya. It was a difficult one alright but you would expect Smith to take those.

The game was done there only. From there it was an easy ride for the Indians as they achieved the target with 13 balls remaining. Australia lost the same match not once but twice. First, in the last ten overs with the bat and then, first ten overs with the ball.

They had their chances in all three games but failed to grasp the crunch moments in the game. Clearly, India was the better side in all three games. In the first match, it was Pandya and MS Dhoni’s saga that set up the game handsomely for India followed by some great spin bowling.

In the second match, it was Bhuvi’s opening spell and Kuldeep Yadav’s tricks that left Aussies in a deeper shockwave. In the third ODI, It was the IPL death over’s experience that got India back into the game. They kept coming back from difficult situations and that’s the stuff champions are made of. We still have 2 matches to go and it will be good to see some fight back from the Australians. For once they were ‘Mighty’ Australians!

Written by Deepak Verma