Twitter Reactions: Australia take advantage of India's sloppy fielding at SCG to post 374

Finch and Smith made India pay heavily and slammed centuries.

By Aditya Gajanan Kukalyekar verified

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2 Min Read

Virat Kohli
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Virat Kohli. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

After almost nine months, India resumed international cricket with the ODI series against Australia on Friday at the Sydney Cricket Ground. But it was all struggle in the middle for them. Right from the toss, nothing went their way on the day and the visitors had themselves to blame for the same. The Indian players were extremely sloppy in the field and it seemed as if they hadn’t trained for a long time.

It started with the Australia openers Aaron Finch and David Warner stitching a very good opening stand. They were cautious for the first few overs taking stock of the conditions and then rotated strike smartly by just tapping the ball. And the Indian fielders looked a bit jaded as they could never stop singles which kept the scoreboard ticking. As the opening partnership grew, Finch and Warner opened up to add 156 runs in 27.5 overs.

The latter got out after 69 runs but what followed was least expected. India would’ve hoped to keep a lid on the run-rate but Steve Smith had other ideas. He batted as if he was doing it in the dressing room for hours. There was no respite for the visitors at all with the former Australia skipper tonking the ball all over the park and India were kind to him as well dropping sitters.

Smith and Finch managed to smash 108 runs together in just over 12 overs to leave the opposition flustered. The Indian bowlers didn’t expect it at all but they didn’t hold on to their catches as well and were made to pay heavily. The Aussie skipper, meanwhile, scored a stunning century while Smith also matched him to get to the three-figure mark.

Glenn Maxwell’s acrobatic stuff

But the worse was yet to come for India. After picking Finch’s wicket, Marcus Stoinis also went back for a golden duck. This was a chance for Virat Kohli’s men to make some sort of a comeback. But again, they let Glenn Maxwell off the hook by dropping his catch early in the innings. Hardik Pandya was the culprit in the 43rd over off Yuzvendra Chahal where he dropped him at long-off.

For some strange reasons, he walked in a little too much and ended up parrying the ball over the boundary. Maxwell then took on the leg-spinner showing his range of shots. He played a reverse sweep which outrageously went for a six and just toyed with the bowlers. His 19-ball 45 helped Australia up the ante with around 7-8 overs to go and that led to the hosts posting 374 runs for the loss of six wickets after 50 overs.

Here’s how Twitter reacted:

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