It couldn’t get any worse for India – at 1 for 277 chasing a huge total of 348 in the 38th over, one would have thought that it would be an easy win for the visiting team. But no, M S Dhoni’s boys had to choose defeat from the jaws of victory, and contrived to lose 9 wickets for 46 runs in the next 13 overs.
It was perhaps one of the most distressing defeats in the history of Indian cricket. For Indian cricket fans the nightmare that the tour of Australia has been so far, shows no sign of going away. And yes, it has every chance of getting worse, as we head to Sydney’s SCG for the 5th and the last match of the ODI series.
Are the Indians up to the challenge of picking themselves up after such a horrible defeat? A 5-0 whitewash would be deeply humiliating and will be a scar that most of these players will have the bear with for years. Yes, it might as well signal the end of captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s remarkable career at the top of Indian cricket. It would be so sad to see Dhoni like this.
They have some hope at the SCG, which offers more assistance to spinners than most of the other tracks in the country. This presents a great opportunity for Nathan Lyon to show what he is capable of. Lyon has been Australia’s most successful spinner since the retirement of Shane Warne, but he has been criminally underused in one day internationals and T20s. But Lyon enjoys the confidence of his new captain Steven Smith, who considers him to be one of his main bowlers, even in limited overs cricket.
[table id=33 /]
For India, they would hope for a better contribution from other batsmen, not just from your top three. Dhoni’s batting has been abysmal and the new players – Gurkeerat Singh, Manish Pandey and Rishi Dhawan have done precious little in the whole series.
It’s high time for real Mahendra Singh Dhoni to show up, because it is very likely that this might well be the last we see of him turning out for a one day international for India if he doesn’t. Harsh, but true.
For India, Ajinkya Rahane misses out because of an injury to the webbing of his left hand, so we expect Manish Pandey to play. Pandey has been found to be completely inadequate in international cricket, but he plays mainly because there is no one else – he might as well make the best of it.
The Teams
Australia: 1 David Warner, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 Steven Smith (capt), 4 George Bailey, 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Mitchell Marsh, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 James Faulkner, 9, John Hastings, 10 Kane Richardson, 11 Nathan Lyon
India: 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Rohit Sharma, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Manish Pandey, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Gurkeerat Singh, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Ishant Sharma
Match Conditions
The SCG should offer assistance to spinners, so this is certainly a good thing for Indian spinners. Ravi Ashwin will be more than a handful on this track. The weather looks good, and we should get a full day’s play.
Watch India take on Australia in the 5th ODI live from the SCG at 8:50 am on Star Sports tomorrow!
[table id=16 responsive=”tablet” /]
