Reuters
Melbourne, Jan 18: Australia beat world champions India by four wickets in a thrilling ODI at the Melbourne Cricket Ground Sunday, overcoming a late mini-collapse to win with just six balls remaining.
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India’s world record holder Rohit Sharma (138, 139b, 4×6, 9×4)) smashed his sixth ODI century to contribute more than half of his team’s total but Mitchell Starc’s (6/43) career-best bowling performance restricted the visitors to 267/8.
When the hosts replied, swashbuckling opener Aaron Finch (96, 127b, 2×6, 5×4) proved he is not just a reckless slogger, as Australia overwhelmed the target with one over to spare.
Finch missed out on his seventh ODI century as Australia chalked up their second win in the tri-series, which also involves England.
Australia’s chase got off to a strong start with the openers putting on 51 runs before the dangerous David Warner (24, 22b, 3×4) spooned a simple catch to Suresh Raina at extra cover.
Shane Watson (41, 39b, 1×6, 5×4) also began aggressively but looked desperate when boundaries stopped flowing and lost his off-stump to left-arm spinner Akshar Patel going for a slog-sweep.
Steve Smith (47, 52b, 6×4), who punished India in the preceding four-Test series, continued to trouble them, once again exposing the visitors’ bowling limitations with his century stand with Finch.
From 216/2, Australia lost four quick wickets to inject fresh excitement in the contest but eventually prevailed when James Faulkner hit the winning boundary off Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Earlier, Sharma did not threaten the record 264 he blasted against Sri Lanka last year but the Indian opener gave Australian bowlers an insight into his intentions ahead of next month’s World Cup with an almost a run-a-ball knock.
Opting to bat first, India slumped to 59/3 inside the first 13 overs before Sharma and Raina (51, 63b, 6×4) set about rebuilding the innings adding 126 for the fourth wicket.
The elegant right-hander departed in the penultimate over when he mistimed a full toss from Starc and holed out to Glenn Maxwell at midwicket.
Starc, who claimed four wickets in Friday’s tournament opener against England, missed out on a hat-trick but walked away with back-to-back man-of-the-match award.
India meet England in the third match of the series Tuesday.
Scoreboard
India: Rohit Sharma c Maxwell b Starc 138, S Dhawan c Finch b Starc 2, Ajinkya Rahane c Haddin b Sandhu 12, V Kohli c Bailey b Faulkner 9, Suresh Raina c Maxwell b Starc 51, MS Dhoni b Starc 19, AR Patel lbw b Starc 0, R Ashwin n o 14, B Kumar b Starc 0, Mohammed Shami n o 2, Extras (B-1, LB-3, W-15, NB-1) 20, Total (eight wickets in 50 overs) 267
Fall: 1-3, 2-33, 3-59, 4-185, 5-237, 6-237, 7-262, 8-262.
Bowling: MA Starc 10-2-43-6, PJ Cummins 10-0-52-0, GS Sandhu 10-0-58-1, JP Faulkner 10-0-63-1, SR Watson 8-0-33-0, GJ Maxwell 2-0-14-0.
Australia: Aaron Finch c Dhoni b Yadav 96, David Warner c Raina b Yadav 24, Shane Watson b Patel 41, Steven Smith c Ashwin b Shami 47, Glenn Maxwell c & b Kumar 20, George Bailey st Dhoni b Ashwin 5, Brad Haddin n o 13, James Faulkner n o 9, Extras: (LB-3 W-11) 14, Total: (For six wkts in 49 overs) 269
Fall: 1/51 2/115 3/216 4/219 5/230 6/248
Bowling: Bhuvneshwar Kumar 9.5-0-44-1, Umesh Yadav 10-1-55-2, Mohammed Shami 8.1-0-44-1, Akshar Patel 10-0-45-1, Ravichandran Ashwin 9-0-54-1, Suresh Raina 2-0-24-0.
