Ind vs Aus 5th ODI: When the series win was on the line and country’s reputation was at stake, the countrymen wanted the Indian
team to fire on all the cylinders but Indian guns fell silent without a whimper.
A collective display of professional cricket by Australian Team led them an unbelievable series victory over
India after they had lost the first two ODIs. Even in the two losses which Australia suffered during the series,
they made India fight for their victory.
Many firsts occurred this time, for instance, it was India’s first ever three consecutive match loss in an ODI
Series under Kohli’s leadership. Also, for the very first time, Virat Kohli got defeated in an ODI Series which
was played at home.
Usman Khawaja continued his wonderful run with the bat. He scored a masterclass century, second of the
series and his career, to give a wonderful start to the Australian Innings. Handscomb had another good day at
the office when he scored a half century for his team. Although the rest of the Australian batsmen didn’t
perform that well, the Australian team put up a defendable 273 runs target for the Indian team to chase in 50
overs.
As usual, Indians chose Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan as the openers for their innings. Although Rohit
Sharma scored a slow half century, the Indian innings had a bad start, as it lost Shikhar Dhawan’s wicket at an
early stage. Virat Kohli’s arrival brought some hopes to the Indian fans, but to their dismay, Kohli managed to
score just 20 runs off 22 balls and was dismissed by Marcus Stoinis. Vijay Shankar and Rishabh Pant couldn’t
contribute much and scored 16 runs each.
Surprisingly, Bhuvneshwar Kumar managed to score 46 runs off 54 balls and outplayed many Indian top order
batsmen. He took India nearer to victory in company of Kedar Jhadav who scored 44 off 57 balls.
Just when the tables were about to turn, Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s dismissal by Pat Cummins ended the 91 runs
partnership. The very next ball, Richardson took Kedar Jhadav’s wicket at a total score of 223 runs in 46 overs.
The Indian innings ended at 237 runs with Shami, Bumrah and Yadav scoring 3,1 and 8 runs respectively.
Usman Khwaja was declared Man of the Match and Man of the series for his splendid performance. Pat
Cummins showed his worth by picking up 14 wickets during the series. He was the highest wicket taker during
the series. Adam Zampa picked up 11 wickets and dealt some crucial blows to Indian team.
For India, Virat Kohli was the highest run scorer with 310 runs and Kuldeep Yadav was the highest wicket taker with 10 wickets.
