I felt 295 was a very good score: MS Dhoni

The 3^rd ODI of India tour of Australia, 2016 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground once again went against India though one can say this was the best they have played in the series thus far. India had a poor start as Rohit Sharma after hitting consecutive hundreds in the series edged a Kane Richardson delivery to the wicketkeeper after scoring just 6. Though Dhawan batted better, scored a fifty and Kohli was once again at his best as he scored his first ODI ton against Australia in Australia and the 24th of his career. India managed to get 295 in their quota of overs loosing 6 wickets.

Australia were once again clinical with the bat and chased the target down without messing things. Shaun Marsh was good at the top and gave them a solid start, but he couldn’t carry on for long and got out on 62. Soon the Indian bowlers and fielders managed to get a couple of quick wickets which opened things up and got the Australian lower middle-order into the game for the first time. Maxwell and James Faulkner kept their cool and made sure there was no panic, Maxie fell only when they needed a run to win for his 96 while Faulkner like in the previous match hit the winning run.

It was going to be a grilling one for Dhoni to suggest things that went wrong for them third time in a row. MS Dhoni said: “It’s a tough loss. We didn’t field well. I remember at least three boundaries could have been easily stopped and that makes a lot of difference in a tight game. I don’t think there was any chance of getting any more runs. I felt 295 was a very good score. We picked up wickets in the middle, but Sran did not have a good day at the office, so that put more pressure himself and it became difficult for me to rotate the bowlers. Ashwin’s exclusion is always debatable, but I thought Rishi Dhawan and Gurkeerat did a decent job. We have to realise that ours is a very inexperienced seam attack. The spinners have played a lot, but the conditions here won’t really help them a lot. It was good to see Ishant bowl very well in the middle overs. Overall, when there is a bit of pressure on them (the bowlers), they start leaking runs and it becomes a bit difficult to manage.”

The winning skipper Steve Smith walked in with a pleasing smile and praised the effort his boys put up, Smith said: “Great performance by the boys. We did well to restrict them and then got off to a good start with the bat. They bowled well in the middle and came back strongly, but then it was the Glenn Maxwell show. We’ll wait and see if want to bat first in the next game. We have been playing well, but there is still room for improvement.”

Glenn Maxwell was the Man of the Match for his brilliant knock. Maxwell said: “That was a pretty amazing win. To chase this down was really enjoyable. I think I have been making really big strides in the last few months. It was nice to get a few off the middle but unfortunately I broke my No.1 bat (smiles).”

Twitter praised Indian skipper MS Dhoni for his wicketkeeping display today – Twitter Reactions: Twitter hails MS Dhoni’s quick work behind the wickets

(Quotes source: Cricbuzz commentary)