That’s it for us, a short and sweet day or night at the cricket. The third and deciding match will take place on Wednesday in Chennai. We’ll see you then.
Hard to get your head around that. Australia lost badly in the first match, all out 188, but they did make India work had for the win five wickets down, with some serious wobbles at the start. Today could not have been any more different, after ram-raiding the Indian batting, then looting the bowling before making a quick getaway.
Marsh opening the batting has been a revelation. He has been used at No3 a lot the last couple of years, which often isn’t much different. But it will be interesting to see what happens when Warner comes back, given Head’s proclivity for big scores up the top.
Australia win by 10 wickets with 39 overs to spare
What a thrashing. Only twice in history has a score been chased in fewer overs for an Australian team to win an ODI. They bowled out India in 26 overs, too. So that was a 37-over match with both innings completed: shorter than a normal T20.
Half century! Travis Head 50 from 29 balls
11th over: Australia 121-0 (Head 51, Marsh 66) Just to complete India’s day, here’s a dropped catch. Head slog-sweeps Axar, big top edge, Shami running around from mid on gets to the ball but jumps in the air as he tries to take it, a bit of panic, and rather than taking the catch, he chests the ball down like he’s at the edge of the box about to lash a left-foot volley under the crossbar. While Shami is cross-coding, Head runs two, then two more through square leg for his milestone. Hands the strike to Marsh, who finishes it with a whistling shot behind point.
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10th over: Australia 112-0 (Head 46, Marsh 62) Well set now, Marsh takes two balls before belting Kuldeep into the stands. A fraction short, Marsh steps back and pulls a ball that doesn’t deserve it on length, but gets the treatment anyway. Into the crowd at midwicket. Kuldeep nearly sneaks through onto the stumps next ball, a bottom-edged cut, but once Head gets on strike he simply dumps a ball over wide long-on, inelegant but effective, shovelling it off a length off the back foot, into the air and into the gap to bounce once over the rope. Keeps strike with a single, will get a shot at a fifty, and Australia have just about won the match in 10 overs.
9th over: Australia 100-0 (Head 41, Marsh 55) Travis Head won’t be left behind, consecutive boundaries from Axar’s bowling. One whipped over the leg side, the next cut through the off. A pair of singles raise the hundred. Kuldeep will get a bowl, far too late in the piece for someone who might have tantalised the batters through the air.
Half century! Marsh 54 from 29 balls
8th over: Australia 90-0 (Head 32, Marsh 54) Hardik Pandya comes on, first ball, belted for six! He captained in the first match, this match he’s hit into the second tier and nearly the third. Marsh just gets on the front foot and pounds that over long off. Fourth ball of the over, six again! A cutter, angled into the bat, and angled off the bat over deep midwicket. Marsh picks it and picks it up. Fifth ball, he goes again! Similar area of the ground, a bit straighter. A baseball punish this time, home run over left field. He has another half century today… 30 of them in sixes. Three dots in the over, on the bright side for Hardik.
7th over: Australia 72-0 (Head 32, Marsh 36) Now we go to spin. Axar Patel gets the ball ahead of Jadeja. Does tangle up Marsh for a couple of balls, but eventually Marsh gets a big stride in and middles him through the covers for four.
6th over: Australia 66-0 (Head 31, Marsh 31) Not much variety from Rohit Sharma, persisting with his opening quicks instead of trying to take pace off the ball. Head responds by whipping Siraj aerially off his pads to the fence, then glances another boundary fine. Third ball, top edge for four! Pull shot from Head, not much elevation on it but enough. Make that four in a row, as he flat-bats a length ball back past mid on! Not timed perfectly but once it beats the fielder it gets there. The final ball of the over he tries to make it five in a row but finds fine leg on the bounce with a hook shot. That’s 17 from the over, scores level between the two openers, and 11 per over through the innings.
5th over: Australia 49-0 (Head 14, Marsh 31) Shami up to Marsh, who thumps him for six. Over long-on, that simple swing through the ball from Marsh who excels at that shot. He fell short of a hundred in the first match and his dismissal brought about a collapse. He wants to fill his plate today. Four more to follow! That back-foot drive once more, beating cover point’s dive. Two balls later, six more: short ball, flat six over square leg. Sixteen from the over, all in boundary shots.
4th over: Australia 33-0 (Head 14, Marsh 15) Thrashed by Marsh to greet Siraj’s new over! Airborne through cover but he gets the placement right and hammers it to the boundary. Tries again and nearly inside edges onto his stumps. It’s not entirely simple to hit through the line on this pitch, even if Marsh is trying to get a chunk of the runs taken care of early to avoid any wobbles. A single that time to fine leg. Head lays into a short ball and belts that for four behind square. 85 to win.
3rd over: Australia 24-0 (Head 10, Marsh 10) Yet another wide, Shami straying down leg. Few enough to defend without giving away runs. Marsh defends one length ball, then rifles away the next with a back-foot drive! The timing on that, and the power. He played shots like that through point during his 181 in the Ashes Test in Perth. Next ball, again takes it at the top of the bounce and this time lifts it over long on. Doesn’t try to hit it very hard, just pops it. Four. Beaten on the inside edge to follow, an in-between shot to an in-between length, before Shami is wided for a marginal ball that goes just over the striker’s helmet.
2nd over: Australia 13-0 (Head 10, Marsh 1) Siraj starts with a wide, this one over the head rather than past the pads, and follows up with a hip-high ball for Head to place through square leg for four. No need for power on the shot, just a deflection. Wide outside off next ball, and Head gets up on his toes to flash it through point! In the air, dicey, but the back foot punch finds the gap. Another punch gets him a single to cover. Marsh does similarly to get off the mark.
Updated
1st over: Australia 2-0 (Head 1, Marsh 0) Shami coming around the wicket and he tends to do now to left-handers, had success against David Warner doing it in the Tests. Warner still isn’t playing today despite coming back from Australia for this series, apparently he now has a problem with a quad muscle to follow his elbow fracture sustained in the second Test. In other news, Travis Head has shaved his dirty big moustache. The tale of Samson, anyone? He takes a single from the first over, which joins a wide as the only scores.
Here we go. Marsh and Head to open, Shami with the ball.
If you’re thirsting for some Mitchell Starc stats, let me tell you that his work across 50 overs is unprecedented. Nobody has rattled through teams like he has.
Mitchell Starc gets 5 wickets in an ODI for the 9th time. In match 109, his frequency remains astonishing, even accounting for 5 times in his first 35.
— Geoff Lemon Sport (@GeoffLemonSport) March 19, 2023
Brett Lee did it 9 times in 221 matches. Shahid Afridi in 398.
Murali got 10 in 350. Waqar Younis 13 in 262.
That's it.
Hello team. Isn’t that a turnaround? India’s bowlers fed Australia through the chaff machine in the first match, and now the favour has been performed in the inverse. Nothing to brag about in India’s batting, aside from a few nice Kohli shots and Axar doing the business alone as he did a few times during the Test series.
I will leave you in the capable hands of Geoff Lemon to steer you through Australia’s run-chase. Short shifts all-round.
Catch you back here Wednesday for game three.
India 117 all out
That was the 26 overs of Steve Smith’s dreams. On a pitch with pace and bounce his seam bowlers settled into their Australian length and profited from an abject display from a strong Indian batting order, justifying their skipper’s decision to field first.
Mitchell Starc was the chief destroyer with five-for-53, ripping out the top order early on, but he was backed up by Sean Abbott (3-23), Nathan Ellis (2-13), Cameron Green (0-20) and Adam Zampa (0-6). On top of that the tourists held every chance that came their way, including one absolute blinder from Smith diving miles to his right at second slip to remove Hardik. Credit too to the umpires for pulling the trigger on three top-order LBWs.
WICKET! Siraj b Starc 0 (India 117)
Starc is back for his third spell, in search of his five-for, and Axar greets him with the shot of the day, a clean, straight six back over the bowler’s head. And he backs it up with another maximum! This time carting a leg-stump half-volley way over backward square. Splendid entertainment towards the end of a frightful innings for India. Demonstrably farming the strike he affords his No 11 two deliveries to survive. The first of which is reviewed for a wildly optimistic LBW appeal that the third umpire confirms has very little going for it. The second clatters into off stump. All over red rover. Starc gets his five-for.
25th over: India 103-9 (Axar 16, Siraj 0) No hat-trick for Abbott with Siraj playing inside the line of a delivery outside off-stump, but he will be delighted with his over nonetheless.
WICKET! Shami c Carey b Abbott 0 (India 103-9)
Two in two for Abbott! Length outside off to Shami who pokes a flat-footed edge through to the keeper. India’s batting has been abject.
WICKET! Kuldeep c Head b Abbott 4 (India 103-8)
Another one goes. Abbott didn’t send down the greatest short ball, but it was quick enough for Kuldeep to mistime a pull straight to midwicket.
24th over: India 101-7 (Axar 15, Kuldeep 4) Ellis into his fifth over, and he gives up just one run to this cautious partnership.
23rd over: India 100-7 (Axar 14, Kuldeep 4) Zampa’s two-over spell didn’t do a lot so Smith returns to the seam of Abbott. Three more singles eventuate as India continue to consolidate and Australia curse the unavailability of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.
22nd over: India 97-7 (Axar 12, Kuldeep 3) Three singles from the latest Ellis over as we move into something of a holding pattern as India look to bat out time.
21st over: India 94-7 (Axar 10, Kuldeep 2) Zampa has seven fielders inside the circle as Australia pile the pressure on India’s lower order. The squeeze keeps the batters to just a single apiece.
20th over: India 92-7 (Axar 9, Kuldeep 1) Kuldeep Yadav continues the run of lefties from both ends, and he’s off the mark early. He’ll need to improve on his ODI average of 12, and highest score of 19, if India are going to post a challenging total.
WICKET! Jadeja c Carey b Ellis 16 (India 91-7)
Ellis has another! Just a touch shorter, but it skids on nicely, and Jadeja – who has not looked in good nick – tries to glide a delicate cut but can only feather an edge through to the keeper. Australia into the bowlers.
19th over: India 90-6 (Jadeja 16, Axar 8) Time for spin. Starc makes way for Adam Zampa after just one over of his second spell and the leggie settles into his work from over the wicket to the two lefties. He induces a leading edge from Jadeja, but for the third time this innings it doesn’t go towards a fielder. Otherwise there’s not a lot to report either in the air or off the pitch.
18th over: India 85-6 (Jadeja 13, Axar 7) Ellis is coming around the wicket now with two left-handers at the crease, and he gives a hearty shout for LBW against Jadeja that is sensibly not reviewed, with an inside-edge saving the batter. The change of angle disrupts the bowler’s rhythm with three leg-side wides in an over as long as Rapunzel’s hair, but not so magical.
17th over: India 82-6 (Jadeja 12, Axar 7) Excellent attacking captaincy from Steve Smith, recalling Starc and going for the jugular. Unfortunately, the best laid plans of mice and men and all that, the bowler doesn’t deliver. There are singles aplenty, a wide, and a half-volley slapped through the off-side to give Axar a handy confidence boost.
“Good morning Jonathan,” season’s greetings Colum Fordham. “Starc’s fiery spell has put his team in the driving seat but Jadeja, and Axar, could be thorns in Australia’s side if they manage to regroup. Was about to write Jadeja and Kohli but that straight delivery from Ellis has put paid to that. Just when Virat was looking his old imperious self.” Indeed, Australia know all about the batting talent at the crease from the recent Test series. But this is a very different – almost Australian pitch – not the dusty hard-spinning minefields we saw with the red ball.
16th over: India 73-6 (Jadeja 11, Axar 1) Excellent over from Ellis, testing the stumps on a full length, making India’s batters work every ball, even despite overstepping fractionally and conceding a free-hit no-ball.
WICKET! Kohli LBW Ellis 31 (India 71-6)
Time for the skiddy right-arm pace of Nathan Ellis, and he reels in the big fish with his second ball! BOSH! Full, straight, angled in from over the crease, and Kohli plays around it to be trapped plumb in front. So plumb he doesn’t even review. Massive moment in this match. You can’t hear the partisan crowd through the TV (nor can you hear the fans in the stand – boom, tish).
15th over: India 70-5 (Kohli 31, Jadeja 10) Green troubles Kohli with a bouncer that climbs on the Indian much more than he expected, but there aren’t enough fielders on the leg-side to profit. Jadeja does not look comfortable with the extra bounce in this pitch, but he is battling through, for now.
14th over: India 67-5 (Kohli 30, Jadeja 8) Abbott continues after drinks, and after Kohli jogs to the non-striker’s end Jadeja is pinned repeatedly on the crease by the heavy back-of-a-length bowling. The player of the match from Friday is eight from 18 and has already ridden his luck on two occasions.
13th over: India 65-5 (Kohli 29, Jadeja 8) Starc finally has a breather, and Green returns, hitting that heavy ball length to right-hander and left, conceding just one run.
12th over: India 64-5 (Kohli 28, Jadeja 8) Kohli hasn’t seen much of the strike during this top-order collapse, but he shows his eye is still in with a delicate late glance down to third for four. Jadeja is not so comfortable, and he gets another life when Abbott squares him up, only to see the healthy outside edge fly a metre or so out of reach of Superman Smith in the slips.
11th over: India 54-5 (Kohli 23, Jadeja 4) Starc afforded a sixth over as Australia look to ram home their ascendancy – and it almost works! Jadeja gets a loopy leading edge to a length delivery that floats over cover. He was aiming for midwicket. Australia then have a long think about a review for a catch down the leg side, but only Carey seemed convinced. Starc rounds out the set with a vicious delivery that kicks off the pitch and beat the defensive push. 4-31 from this potentially match-winning spell.
10th over: India 51-5 (Kohli 22, Jadeja 2) Lucky that India bat preposterously deep.
WICKET! Hardik c Smith b Abbott 1 (India 49-5)
CARNAGE! Steve Smith with one of the all time great slip catches. Abbott hits his hard length again, Hardik holds his bat out to dry and Smith flies to his right at second slip like a dolphin gambolling in the ocean, clutching the ball at the farthest point of his reach. Outstanding fielding.
WOW!! Steve Smith, what a grab 😱
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) March 19, 2023
India are FIVE down! #INDvAUS
Live match centre: https://t.co/LXGrkQy5JJ pic.twitter.com/tLjSiXaZnJ
Updated
9th over: India 49-4 (Kohli 22, Hardik 1) Rahul reviewed his LBW, by the way, but like Split Enz, all the third umpire saw was red. India’s haul of reviews has been halved.
WICKET! KL Rahul LBW Starc 9 (India 48-4)
Almost another commentator’s curse with Kohli slashing without control outside his off stump to the first ball of Starc’s fifth over, but the thick edge lands safely behind square. Not that the bowler was in a huff for long. Three deliveries later he has KL Rahul LBW! Classic Starc, line and length, seaming back into the right hander, after two that angled away. Quality fast bowling. Starc has four. Australia are cock-a-hoop.
8th over: India 47-3 (Kohli 21, Rahul 9) The first bowling change of the day sees Sean Abbott replacing Cameron Green. Tidy start from the right-arm seamer, hitting the deck hard, just back of a length. He doesn’t trouble Kohli though who moves into the 20s with ominous ease.
7th over: India 42-3 (Kohli 18, Rahul 7) KL Rahul is off the mark with a leg glance, a shot perilously close to the diving Carey as he fell too far over to the off side at the point of contact. A couple of runs through the off side off the back foot are much more conventional as he resumes a proactive, hard-running partnership with Kohli.
6th over: India 34-3 (Kohli 17, Rahul 0) Green has settled into his work and is providing an excellent foil to the destructive Starc. Just five runs, and eight dot-balls from his past two overs.
5th over: India 32-3 (Kohli 15, Rahul 0) KL Rahul keeps out the hat-trick ball, but that’s still a double-wicket maiden for Starc. The big quick has already justified his skipper’s decision to bowl first.
WICKET! Suryakumar LBW Starc 0 (India 32-3)
Make that three! SKY is gone first ball! That is a beauty from Starc, thundering into the crease, landing the ball on a perfect line and length, finding a hint of movement into the right hander and beating the bat. That looked very out in real time, and after a mid-pitch conflab Kohli agrees and his junior partner does not review. Australia are rampant.
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WICKET! Rohit c Smith b Starc (India 32-2)
Starc has two! Another gift from India with Rohit slashing at a wide length delivery with flat feet, thrashing an edge through to Smith at second slip who does superbly to react to the initial blow then hold on as the ball threatened to wriggle free. Without really doing much Australia are off to a hot start.
4th over: India 32-1 (Rohit 13, Kohli 15) Three singles, three dots, one play-and-miss, no extras. The first regulation over of the match. Green bowling 140+ kph with the new ball.
3rd over: India 29-1 (Rohit 11, Kohli 14) More timing from Kohli – he has come to play! The checked drive through the covers off Green is upgraded into a classical off drive off Starc. All timing. The bowler responds by dragging his length back, extracting a touch of bounce, and Kohli’s limp waft makes it look a better delivery than it was. There was nothing the Indian star needed to do to make the next legal delivery look dangerous (after another wild off-side wide). Starc found the perfect length, a hint of wobble, and beat the outside edge and the top of off stump by inches. But again the follow-up is poor, leaking onto the pads and gifting Kohli another boundary.
2nd over: India 19-1 (Rohit 10, Kohli 6) Cameron Green shares the new ball, and he starts with a lovely full outswinger that shapes nicely through the air. The rest of the over isn’t much chop though, Rohit making it consecutive leg-stump half-volley boundaries through square-leg, while Kohli demonstrates his timing with a checked drive for four through the covers.
On the TV tight shot, with the bright straw coloured deck and vivid green outfield, you could easily be forgiven for thinking you were in Australia. It’s only when the camera pans out that you realise you’re in India. Oh, and the noise is deafening.
1st over: India 8-1 (Rohit 5, Kohli 1) Not a great over of international cricket, but one that Australia will be very happy with, even with it ending with Rohit clipping a leg-stump half-volley away for four.
WICKET! Gill c Labuschagne b Starc 0 (India 3-1)
Starc begins with a massive wide that tracks nearer the second of two slips than India’s skipper. Rohit then gets off strike easily with a gentle guide down to third with the angle of the left-armer bowling across him from over the wicket. Another wild wide, this time in the vague direction of Gill. Not sure Starc is at the races yet. Lol. Next delivery he has a wicket. Of course he does. Length outside off – nothing delivery really – and Gill wafts without moving his feet and sends a thick edge straight to point.
Mitchell Starc has the ball. Rohit Sharma is on strike. Let’s cricket!
The two sides are out in the middle. The surface looks flat and straw coloured. The outfield lush and emerald. India are in vivid blue with orange accents. Australia canary yellow with dashes of zinc. The umpires are in magenta. It’s a beautiful scene.
Australia backing pace, India backing spin. It’s like UFC 1 when nobody knew which of the martial artists would prevail. Until the Brazilian jiu-jitsu bloke rocked up and mess of everyone.
Visakhapatnam is on India’s east coast where there has been rain around in recent days, but the skies have cleared just in time.
Covers getting removed.. full sunshine in #Vizag . Probably match will start On time because Vizag have brilliant drinage system & staff #INDvsAUS pic.twitter.com/uRKW9p6L6V
— Vizag Weatherman (@VizagWeather247) March 19, 2023
Australia have won the toss and will field
This venue is normally full of runs so Steve Smith is hoping to exploit any juice in the surface following the rain of recent days. Makes sense. Glenn Maxwell pulled sore after his first international outing for a while, hence Ellis’s inclusion.
Rohit would also have bowled first but is still confident there will be turn later on for his attack featuring three spinners.
India XI
Rohit Sharma returns to captain the side, so Ishan Kishan makes way, while the spin of Axar Patel is preferred to the grunt of Shardul Thakur.
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami
Australia XI
Alex Carey returns behind the stumps, displacing Josh Inglis, while Nathan Ellis comes in for Glenn Maxwell. Still no David Warner.
Australia: Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith (c), Marnus Labuschagne, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Marcus Stoinis, Sean Abbott, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa
Here’s Geoff’s series preview, if, unlike the ICC you need context to your cricket.
The company line is that this will be useful preparation for the 50-over World Cup in India later this year. That might mean something if Australia did not already have a three-match date in India in September for exactly that purpose. The later series has long been in the calendar, the current one was shoehorned in a couple months ago when it became clear that a few unexploited days could be manufactured between the Tests and the new season of the Indian Premier League. This was also around the time that Cricket Australia cited ethical concerns while cancelling a planned series against Afghanistan due in a similar late-March window.
Preamble
Hello everybody and welcome to the second ODI of the cricket-for-cricket’s sake series between India and Australia. Weather permitting, we’ll be underway in Visakhapatnam at 1.30pm local time (7pm AEDT).
Smash cut to Geoff Lemon’s introduction from the first ODI on Friday:
If you want another indication of how meaningful this series is, no Australian media outlet is covering it. None. All of us who did the Test series headed for the exits afterwards. Even the cricket.com.au contingent from the in-house Cricket Australia site. They went to the Caribbean and Bangladesh on the team plane during the pandemic for white-ball tours, but not this. Cricbuzz and Cricinfo will have their Australian correspondents at this first match in Mumbai, but only because they had other things to take care of in the same city. Nobody will be travelling to the second and third matches.
Why? Because this series was added only a couple of months ago and serves no purpose aside from filling screen time. English players were scathing about the one-dayers they played right after the T20 World Cup last November, and half their reserve players preferred to play the Pakistan Super League T20s than show up in Bangladesh for England matches over the past couple of weeks. We’re at an interesting stage in the life cycle of bilateral contests.
Friday’s series opener was far from a classic with bowlers from both sides dominating before KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja steered India home by five wickets.
Let’s see what we have in store today.
As all involved satisfy their contractual obligations, feel free to send me an email, or fly a tweet to @JPHowcroft.
