India has ended Australia’s hopes of back-to-back ODI series wins in the country with a seven-wicket victory in Bengaluru despite a batting masterclass from Steve Smith.<\/p>\n
Smith scored 131 in Australia’s 9-286 on Sunday night before a Rohit Sharma century saw India chase down the target with 15 balls to spare and take the three-match series 2-1.<\/p>\n
The Aussies were barely in the contest in the second innings, as Ashton Agar took 1-38 off 10 overs and Adam Zampa 1-44 but the quicks all went for big runs.<\/p>\n
Pat Cummins had one of the worst days of his ODI career with 0-64 from seven overs, while Mitchell Starc also went at 7.3 an over.<\/p>\n
Josh Hazlewood was more impressive with 1-55 in his first ODI in 14 months.<\/p>\n
But after Agar dismissed KL Rahul for 19, Rohit and Virat Kohli put on a show.<\/p>\n
Sharma notched up his eighth one-day century against Australia to finish on 119 from 128 balls, while Kohli also hit 89 before being bowled by Hazlewood.<\/p>\n
Australia was most left to rue a poor end to their own batting innings, where no-one could go with Smith.<\/p>\n
The former captain hit 36 from 21 balls in the final 10 overs, while his teammates contributed just 22 from 39 balls in the same period.<\/p>\n
Ashton Turner scored four from 10 balls, while Agar went at less than a run a ball for his 11no.<\/p>\n
Australia’s desire to find a way to up the ante was also exemplified when Mitchell Starc was moved up to No.5 and ahead of Alex Carey, Turner and Agar as a pinch hitter in the 32nd over.<\/p>\n
The experiment failed as he scored a third-ball duck, but it highlighted the Aussies’ concerns in the area after dropping Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis after poor World Cups.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Smith also had to brush aside a mix up with Aaron Finch, as the Aussie captain was run out for 19 after both men found themselves at the same end of the pitch.<\/p>\n
But while there were issues at the other end, Smith never lost his composure to post his first ODI century in three years.<\/p>\n
He played gloriously all around the ground and became the fourth-fastest Australian to 4000 ODI runs along the way before he holds out off Mohammad Shami in the 48th over.<\/p>\n
Smith combined in a 127-run stand with Marnus Labuschagne, who again looked busy for his 54 from 64, while Carey hit 35 from 36.<\/p>\n
But the target never looked like being enough on a battery-friendly wicket, as India cruised home with regular opener Shikhar Dhawan nursing an injured shoulder.<\/p>\n
It marks Australia’s first loss in a bilateral series since last January and ended their chances of becoming the first team in a decade to win back-to-back ODI series in India. India has ended Australia’s hopes of back-to-back ODI series wins in the country with a seven-wicket victory in Bengaluru despite a batting masterclass from Steve Smith. Smith scored 131 in Australia’s 9-286 on Sunday night before a Rohit Sharma century saw India chase down the target with 15 balls to spare and take the three-match […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3464,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3461\/revisions\/3464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAgencies<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"