Maxwell dazzles as Australia beats India to clinch ODI series

But Glenn Maxwell probably played one of the most sensible knocks of his ODI career and took the match away from India’s grasp, with the help of a magnificent 96 off 104 balls. At times, standing from behind, I feel I can only try to put pressure by changing the fields. Aaron Finch said his 145-run partnership with Marsh gave them an advantage and also praised counterparts’ bowling attack.

Debutant Gurkeerat Singh Mann dropped Finch in the 6th over, with the batsman on 20.

Immediately after the sixth wicket fell, Sran conceded 13 runs in an over, the misguided tactic of bowling short outside offstump without accompanying pace to Maxwell resulting in rather predictable fours and sixes. Rahane proved a more than adequate replacement, and another century stand again was ended by a run out. He played a calculated one, getting to 50 on a run-a-ball basis, while getting the odd boundary every over. A stumping off George Bailey was judged to millimetre precision, and Mitchell Marsh was run out because he couldn’t make out from Dhoni’s body language that a throw had been fired in at his end.

Things looked up for the visitors when Ishant Sharma had Shaun Marsh caught behind, Australia stumbling to 167 for four in 30 overs. And when Matthew Wade (6) holed out against the same bowler in the 39th over, Australia were reduced to 215/6.

James Faulkner of Australia celebrates hitting the winning runs against India.

The pair reached their respective half-centuries in successive Maxwell deliveries, but Dhawan was bowled by Hastings soon after. Thereafter, the equation came down to a very manageable run-a-ball, and the duo took Australia home – and to the series win – without much fuss.

The Australians would argue they should have had Rohit on 89, when he the umpire failed to detect an edge behind off Paris, but by then he had already set India’s innings up nicely.

R Ashwin and Manish Pandey were excluded from the playing eleven as skipper MS Dhoni went in with six bowlers.

Kohli then walked to the crease, and looked fluent from the very beginning.

It certainly seemed a hard surface at the start of India’s innings, with Dhawan never really breaking free from the poor form that has dogged him in the past season. While they didn’t lose any more wickets, India could only reach 62/1 in the first 15 overs. MS Dhoni’s cameo (23 off 9) upped the ante in the last few overs and made sure the target was a challenging one for the Aussies. They unleashed a flurry of boundaries as the run-rate moved to five an over, and the two batsmen celebrated their fifties in the 23rd over. A straight drive for four off Hastings in the second over of the match was the nearest Shikhar came to scoring an off-side boundary, but he struck nine fours in all and brought up his fifty from his 76th delivery, one ball after Kohli raised his half-century.

At the half-way mark, India were positioned at 119 for one. There are a few games before that here against India that we’re looking forward to. Dhawan’s innings though was painfully slow, as he played out 91 balls to get to his 68 before being bowled by John Hastings in the 27th over.