Revisiting the 3rd ODI in the eyes of past series: confessions of a cricket lover

Hardik in 3rd ODI

 India versus Australia is one of the oldest and famous rival in the fields of cricket for almost 5 decades. Austrian undoubtedly one of the most powerful country in cricket beside hockey and other sports. The people born in 90’s can share his nostalgia of childhood and youth in Aussie India series in Australia. Starting form early morning we saw the battle of bouncers, pace and wonderful pictures of pure cricket along with a mental struggle with Aussie fielder and Indian batsman in terms of sledging. Just few days ago Australia India ODI series comes to an end. It is a bitter truth that winning series in Aussie soil is one of the most rarest thing in cricket history. In early 2000 it was an absolutely dream. In 2003/04 series Sourav Ganguly finished the series with a draw and that revealed that we can fight against the Aussies in their soils. It is important to keep in mind that the then Dada's army was an absolutely young players team. After 1990’s decade, the dream of winning series in India was fulfilled again by Captain cool MSD in 2008 CB SERIES, this series was a bad time for Dada because this series made him out from the national team in ODI format. It is also not wrong that he was not in form in Test series . However we won that final in a wonderful nail biting final match when we beat Aussies by 9 runs in  SCG.  Target was not at all sufficient for chasing against the team with player like Hayden, Gilchrist, Ponting, Symonds. Well the rest is history.

   Well later we won a test series in 2018 when MSD took retirement from test format and this team of 2018 is also same youngsters team like Dada’s army. Beside VK, Rahane, Pujara almost all players are too young . Especially Rishabh Pant played extremely well in batting and Kuldeep Yadav in bowling in the SCG test. Well in the current series by and large the ODI series may seem disappointing for the Indian fans who just came out from a fever called IPL. Important Aussie player like Smith, Finch and Maxwell were totally out of form throughout the league. But in the first two game we see real aggression of Aussie batting where this three musketeers were the main pillar of two 350+ scores in two games. India also fought well and also won the third game and ended the series loosing by 2-1 margin. Many criticism came out regarding bowling batting and fielding of India team. Critics were also busy in discussing that why the hitman Rohit Sharma was not in squad. Apart from controversy here I am going to compare the third and final game of Canberra with the Gabba one day match of Ind Zim Aus Tri series in 2003. One may ask what is the reason behind this comparison . I would say both of the series India was a team with full of youngsters. In 2003 we played well but beat in two final against the host in a very one sided match.

Laxman in 2004 VB Series

Balaji in 2004 VB Series

   On that time India had a fav-four factor in batting which means the four batting pillar like Dada, Sachin, Dravid and Laxman. In any away match according to spots analysis this four player had the surety that one of them would score a ton definitely and that would make the batting score a respectable total. But in here India lost its fav-four base in overseas game. Pujara, Vijay, Virat Kholi  and Rahane Did not have this surety in test game . It we talk about ODI game it’s also very much true. On that ODI match India made a fighting total of 303 run with the loss of 4 wicket . Laxman made an unbeaten 100 along with Sachin’s 86 and Dravids 64 balls 74 . In reply Mathew Hayden played wonderful ton of 109 beside Ponying, Gilly but still India won that game by 19 runs. India defended the Aussies which was absolutely impossible without wonderful bowling of Irfan Pathan and Lakhsmipati Balaji’s wonderful bowling of 3/64, 4/48. This math another youngster performed well but then he did not make a successful career. He is none other than Rohan Gavaskar.

IND vs AUS, 5th ODI Summary, VB Series-2004

IND vs AUS, 3rd ODI Summary, DETTOL Series  2020

   Now let’s move move to present. In Manuka oval odi we see India was struggling badly in 151/5 in 31 over. We should keep in mind, this is one of the most scoring pitich in Australia unlike Gabba. This group saw the 215 of Chris Gayle and 372 runs partnership between universal boss and Marlon Samuels. So from 151/5 to 302/5 was really a fighting total but not yet sufficient at all because Australia scored 350+ score in previous two games . Even in ODI series of 2016 India chasing 350+ target in Canberra finished in 321 . Still Pandya-Jadeja jugalbandi was really wonderful and the Jadeja changed his gear after 45 overs which was really spectacular. Jadeja was struggling in batting for a long time in first two game Jadeja’s batting was really slow and in ICC CT 2017 final he was responsible for the run out of the set batsman Hardik Pandya . So the revival of Jadeja will give the fans an immens relief to take the part of MSD in terms of finishing. But it is important that how defence such insufficient total. Indian bowlers put Aussies in pressure from the early overs. Smith’s early dismissal was really needed . But still Finch played aggressively. The chances of win was become clear after the dismissal of Finch with a fighting 75. Then asking rate was just over 7 . Run of both team remained almost same till 30^th over. Here is a difference that in 2004 ODI that I mentioned here, Australia made almost 80+ runs in mandatory powerplay. But then 210/6 led them in backfoot. But the drama revived as Maxwell made an wonderful 31 balls fifty and took the asking rate even under 6. Anyone can think the win of the home team and whitewash of the series but his wicket at last became the turning point of the game. Just like Balaji-Pathan, Shardul Thakur (3/51) and T Natarajan (3/70) duo were the main pillar behind the defence . The 13 runs victory was yet a short margin but it revealed two very clear things. First is India’s bowling will reach a good height if even Bumrah, Bhuvi or Shami does not work properly. The second thing is opined by Ranadev Basu in Ei Samay that Australia is not very much strong in run chase . India though lost both 2 games but scored 300+ in both game. If the middle order worked properly we might on the way to win the 1^st game. The target was not enough for the Aussies but still we won. As a fan I will say Australian weakness, our pace battery and the tweet of Gambhir praising Smith are responsible (May be so😂) .

So at the end this series is going to be exiting and as a cricket lover the game 3  reminds me the old India Australia vibes.