India lose ODI series to Australia

Australia dished out yet another batting masterclass to crush India by 51 runs in the second ODI on Sunday at the Sydney Cricket Ground. With this, Australia have taken an unassailable 2-0 lead making the third ODI in Canberra a dead rubber, although ODI World Cup Super League Points will be up for grabs.

A crowd of 17,573 has been able to savour Australia’s first bilateral ODI home series win since 2016-17 against Pakistan and were treated to brilliance from Smith. He scored a century from an identical number of balls as the first ODI and played a peerless knock. 

After the openers added 142, Smith and Labuschagne teamed up to add 136 runs for the third wicket. The home fans were left hoping that this is the first of many partnerships between two eccentrics but extremely difficult to dislodge batsmen.

The Indian bowlers had no mercy from Maxwell either with the swashbuckler smashing them for 63 off just 29 balls. Jasprit Bumrah had another day to forget returning figures of 1/79 off his ten overs, while every regular bowler went for at least 70 runs.

India’s response followed the same pattern as in the first ODI with the openers promising so much before fizzling out. Only this time, captain Kohli had a decent outing in the middle, but that wasn’t enough to stretch Australia. Vice-captain KL Rahul tried to take the game deep but with the first ODI hero Pandya struggling to get his big hits going, it was just a matter of winning margin.

Kohli admitted after the match that India were outplayed in all departments and need to bounce back quickly. Speaking at the post-match presentations, Kohli said: “We were completely outplayed. I think with the ball we were not that effective. 

"We just didn't hit the areas that we wanted to consistently. And they have got a pretty strong batting line-up, and they understand these conditions and pitches and the angles on the field well. We had to bowl in one area for long enough, and we didn't. 

"We got to 340 and still fell short by 50 so the chase always felt a bit too steep. The areas they bowl, invariably they were in the position that some chances would be created. They used the dimensions of the field pretty well, which we unfortunately did not.”

The only positive for India was that Pandya bowled four overs after Kohli asked him if he wanted to try a couple of overs. For Australia, David Warner’s groin injury is a cause of concern as the opener hobbled off during the chase. As per latest reports, he is racing against time to be fit for the Test series starting from December 17.

Scores: Australia 389/4 (Smith 104, Warner 83, Labuschagne 70, Maxwell 63*, Pandya 1/24) beat India 338/9 (Kohli 89, Rahul 76, Cummins 3/67) by 51 runs.