A Shaun Marsh fifty has helped keep the Australia innings afloat after some razor-sharp work in the field by India during the second Gillette ODI match at the Adelaide Oval.
Australia lost both openers in successive overs as India struck two telling blows in the powerplay to give India an early boost. But a 56-run partnership between Marsh and Usman Khawaja helped get the Aussies back on track until the first piece of brilliance from the fielding side.
Ravi Jadjea, running in from cover point, picked the ball up on the fly, bobbled it into his hand for a better grip, and threw down the stumps at the non-striker’s end to run out Khawaja for 21 from 23 balls.
Peter Handscomb, Australia’s top-scorer from the first ODI, put on 52 with Marsh for the fourth wicket before he was undone by the second piece of sharp work, this time by the evergreen MS Dhoni, who stumped the Australian for 20 from 22 balls off Jadeja’s bowling.
A short time ago, Australia were 4-146 in the 31st over with Marsh unbeaten on 65 and Marcus Stoinis fresh at the crease with eight.
Aaron Finch’s difficult run of form continued when he was the first wicket to fall, bowled aiming a booming drive down the ground off the bowling of Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Alex Carey followed in the next over, seemingly surprised by the short ball, as he popped a simple chance up for Shikhar Dhawan to pouch at mid-wicket with Australia slipping to 2-26 in the eighth over.
Finch now averages just 12 from five ODI innings at the Adelaide Oval. Since he scored 172 in a T20 against Zimbabwe last July, Finch has scored 202 runs in 16 limited-overs internationals, averaging 12.63.
Australia, who won the coin toss and opted to bat first, fielded an unchanged XI from the side that won the opening ODI in Sydney by 34 runs to upset the world’s No.1 ranked team, with Glenn Maxwell again listed to bat at No.7.
Allrounder Mitchell Marsh again remains sidelined as he continues to recover from a virulent bout of gastritis that left him hospitalised for two days last week with players in today’s match set to swelter as Adelaide bakes in temperatures reaching the mid-40s Celsius region.
Kohli said he would also have batted first with the Adelaide surface looking “like a great wicket”. Kohli said his side were “scratchy” in Sydney
India have made one change to their line-up with rookie left-arm pacer Kahleel Ahmed dropped from the side and replaced by Mohammed Siraj, who makes his ODI debut.
Siraj, a 24-year-old from Hyderabad, has played three T20 internationals for India and 31 List A one-dayers. He joined India’s squad to replace first-choice seamer Jasprit Bumrah, who was rested after India’s triumph in the Domain Test Series.
A win in Adelaide would give Australia their first ODI series victory since January 2017.
Victory on Tuesday against India in game two of the three-match series will snap a six-series losing streak in ODIs for Australia.
“It would mean a lot – it has been a while,’” Australia’s vice-captain Alex Carey told reporters on Monday.
“As a cricket lover, I want to see Australia winning. And being a part of it, it means so much to us every game we play.
“So the series win would be a great result and a really big confidence booster.”
Since beating Pakistan 4-1 in January 2017 the Australians have won just four of 26 ODIs – a stretch featuring 19 losses and three no-results.
But Carey said Australia’s collective eyes weren’t on the prize of a series win against the Indians but rather the “process” ahead of a World Cup captain starting in late May.
“To continue to get better every game is probably our biggest process at the moment leading into that World Cup,” he said.
“Not thinking too far ahead, bringing it back to tomorrow night, but if we’re playing the cricket we know we’re good enough to play, the results will probably look after themselves.”
In Sydney last Saturday, India opener Shikhar Dhawan was out for a first-ball duck, captain Virat Kohli made just three and Ambati Rayudu was dismissed for a second-ball duck as the visitors were left reeling at 3-4 in the fourth over, a position they couldn’t escape from despite opener Rohit Sharma’s superb 133.
Gillette ODI Series v India
Australia ODI squad: Aaron Finch (c), Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey (wk), Peter Handscomb, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Peter Siddle, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner, Adam Zampa
India ODI squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (wk), Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj
First ODI: Australia won by 34 runs
Second ODI: January 15, Adelaide Oval (D/N)
Third ODI: January 18, MCG (D/N)
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