Third India-Aus ODI Abandoned
Australia’s short tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 ended in major disappointment for the tourists as they lost the ODI series 1-0 when the third and final match of the series was abandoned due to persistent rain and wet ground conditions.
Much to the glum of fans and viewers, the final match of the series was match was abandoned without a ball being bowled in Margao.
It capped off a wretched, winless tour for one of the most formidable teams in world cricket as heavy rain on the eve of the game clogged the ground. The venue that did not have the best drainage system in the world was not in
a position to hold the match, despite the fact that the weather was clear on match day.
The result means that the Aussies who had embarked on the tour amid high hopes end the series with real disappointment, failing to win any match in their stay,
The last time they had to face such embarrassment was on their tour in 2008-09 where they drew the tour game and lost the Tests 0-2. However they won the ODI series when they returned for the shorter duration a month or so after
the test matches.
On this tour they had to watch from the sidelines as the first ODI in Kochi was also washed out in similar circumstances.
The fans at Margao were extremely unhappy as the match was called off as they finally had an international game to host after waiting to see a match between two top class teams for a long time.
In the end the series turned into a one match affair as the only time action took place on the field was in the second tie, held at Visakhapatnam and both teams took a couple of positives.
The Australians fielded http://www.senore.com/Cricket/A-Young-c41367 team, especially the bowling unit that was extremely inexperienced especially in Indian conditions.
Their batsmen did fairly well with captain Michael http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120 leading from the front to post a magnificent hundred after the top two wickets had fallen cheaply.
He was ably supported by Mr. Cricket Mike Hussey who stroked a useful half century, before an astonishing assault by big hitting Cameron White pushed the hosts to a highly competitive total of 289 runs.
White once again demonstrated that he was one of the biggest hitters in the game as he smashed as many as 6 sixes in his brutal assault. He took 23 runs from the last over bowled by rookie pacer Vinay Kumar.
The bowlers were however exposed in their outing with the ball, the most experienced pacer in the line-up was Clint McKay who only made his debut a year or so ago. He failed to keep a check on the scoring, especially as debutant
Starc and Hastings leaked runs from the other end.
However he and Hastings succeeded in taking 5 wickets between them, yet it was not enough to prevent the hosts from scoring a relatively comfortable win in the last over of the match.
The match was a personal triumph for Veerat Kohli the young Indian top order batsman. Kohli led his team to a win with the third century of his young career for India. He was assured at the crease and handled a potentially tough
situation with great deal of ease to guide his team home.
He found good support from Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh the two left-handers played the role of senior batsmen with great efficiency, helping Kohli pace through to his ton.
The Indians are now set to take on the New Zealanders in a test and ODI series, which starts with the first of three test matches at Ahmadabad on 4th November.
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