Australia vs India, 2nd ODI, SCG, 2020: Australia has won the 2nd ODI by 51 runs and has taken an unassailable lead by 2-0 in 3 match series. Before the series started there were speculations on how team India will perform in the test series without Virat Kohli. But even with Virat Kohli, they have played the cricket without the spirit in the ODI series so far.
From the inexperienced bowling line-up to the poor fielding with getting out while playing the poor shots team India was not in the match from the start. Australia with a 1-0 lead decided to bat first after winning the toss in the second ODI game and the Aussies started the batting where they have left in the last game.
The top five Australian batsmen have scored half-centuries to help Australia to post 389 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in the 50 overs. Steve Smith (104) scored back to back centuries to prove why he is termed as “modern-day great”.
Watch | Indian fan proposes Australian fan in 2nd ODI at SCG
While David Warner (83), Aaron Finch (60), Marnus Labuschagne (70), and an unbeaten knock of 29-ball 63 runs from Glenn Maxwell which featured 4 fours and 4 sixes to almost assure that Australia not going lose this match such score on the board. Having said this, let us take a look at the four things that went wrong for India.
It was the same ground where team India in the last game has played while they were again chasing the target 375. In the second game, Australian captain Aaron Finch decided to bat first with no surprise after winning the toss and it was the same kind of start Aussies were looking for with 142 runs stand for the first wicket between David Warner and Aaron Finch in just 22.5 overs.
However, David Warner fell short of his century while scoring 83 runs which included 7 fours and 3 Sixes. The momentum was there for other players with Steve Smith (104), Aaron Finch (60), Marnus Labuschagne (70), and Glenn Maxwell unbeaten 63* to help post a massive score of 389 runs in the 50 overs.
A team has to understand how crucial is the quality bowling line-up against a team like Australia in their own territory. Virat Kholi has experimented with seven bowlers against Australia which was another reason team India has lost the second game in a row. Even the frontline bowlers like Shami and Bumrah were ineffective and too expensive in their spells to provide any help to team India.
The spinner Chahal who once again went wicketless made the situation more difficult for team India when fast bowlers were not providing breakthroughs. India should keep two regular spinners against Australia rather than keeping inexperienced bowlers in a team in every match.
It was quite shocking the see that captain don’t make the change in the team and playing with the same team. Rohit Sharma is not playing due to injury is the biggest blow for team India. In that case team, India needs to strengthen their batting line up and provide more depth in the batting with the batsman like Shubham Gill and S anju Samson.
Chasing 390, team India has opened with Mayank Aggarwal instead of KL Rahul once again. In such a high-scoring game team needs a flying start which was not provided by Mayank Aggarwal and Shikhar Dhawan which has put pressure on Virat Kholi and other players to fight back in the chase.
KL Rahul has scored 76 runs off 66 balls while batting at 5 if that run was scored with a flying start the situation and result could’ve been different for team India.
All-rounder is effective for the team in every situation from bowling to batting and even with acrobatic fielding skills. In team India, there is hardly an all-rounder who can win matches single handily. Jadeja and Pandya both were not effective with the ball.
Ravindra Jadeja went wicketless and Pandya couldn’t complete his spell of 10 overs (which shows either he is not fit or the captain doesn’t have expectations from him).
With losing the second game and series to the team India has to figure out things that didn’t work out as they have a long tour coming T20Is and test series with Australia to bounce back stronger in the next game.
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