Moises Henriques picked three big wickets in response to captain Aaron Finch’s decision to field after the winning toss, playing a big role in helping restrict India’s top order. However, Ravindra Jadeja, in good touch, led the recovery for India and helped post a very competitive 161/7.
KL Rahul top scored for India with 51 while Jadeja added a quickfire 44 not out.
Mitchell Starc, who wasn’t in the best form in the ODIs, was on the money from the word go and struck early, knocking over Shikhar Dhawan (1) with a beautiful swinging yorker.
Virat Kohli and KL Rahul picked up the scoring with a few boundaries before Mitchell Swepson deceived the Indian captain for 9.
Sanju Samson, looking to make his case for selection stronger, had the perfect chance to stick it out and play a big innings but yet again failed to capitalize on a start. Moises Henriques had him caught at cover off a slower one.
Rahul at the other continued to chip away and completed his half century and was looking good for a big knock. He was though losing partners rapidly as Manish Pandey fell to Adam Zampa leaving India in a spot of bother at 90/4.
Rahul, who was looking to accelerate now, went for a big one over long on and became Henriques’ second wicket as the Australian bowling started to dominate proceedings. India at 92/5 had lost any of the early momentum Kohli and Rahul had given.
However, that’s when Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja, the architects of the win from a couple of days ago from a situation rather similar, decided they’d try to repeat their act but could only put on 22 runs together. Pandya holing out to Steve Smith for Henriques’ third for 16.
Jadeja though went through the gears swiftly and exploded in the final couple of overs with a few big hits during a 23 ball cameo that saw him stay unbeaten on 44. He did go off with a limp, which might be a worry for India.
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