(Cricket news) India were put into to bat first after Australia won the toss. Rohit Sharma came back in for Ishan Kishan and Axar Patel replaced Shardul Thakur as India wanted an extra spinner. Australia also made a couple of changes as Nathan Ellis replaced the injured Glenn Maxwell and Alex Carey came back in for Josh Inglis. India’s performance was way below par and it is worrying as there are not many ODI matches left to go before the World Cup. Australia on the other hand looked really lethal in all departments and they completely outplayed India to level the series 1-1 and take it to the decider at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

India were hit with the Mitchell Starc storm in the 1st innings. In his very 1st spell Starc got rid of Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav and KL Rahul. The southpaw bowled at searing pace from around the wicket and the Indian batters were completely bamboozled. India have always struggled against left arm seamers swinging the ball and that is something that needs to be looked at. Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav were both dismissed for a duck and the type of dismissal was just like the 1st game which is a concern. Especially for Suryakumar Yadav who hasn’t got going in ODIs and has scored 2 back to back golden ducks.

Virat Kohli tried to steady the ship and played a few decent shots but he was dismissed by Nathan Ellis who also dismissed Ravindra Jadeja later. Sean Abbott came into the attack and picked up the wickets of Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav and Mohammed Shami. Starc was brought back into the attack and he dismissed Mohammed Siraj to complete his 5 wicket haul. India were bowled out for just 117 thanks to some lethal bowling by the Aussies. However it has to be said that the intent of the Indian batters wasn’t right. 

Australia ended up chasing it down with 10 wickets and 234 balls to spare. Mitchell Marsh showed no mercy as he smashed 66 off 36 deliveries including 6 boundaries and 6 maximums. Travis Head provided good support as he scored 51 off 30 balls hitting 10 fours. It is a recurring theme with this Indian team that with a low total to defend they just don’t build enough pressure. The batters definitely let the team down but it looked like the bowlers gave up. Umran Malik needs to seriously be looked at now to bring someone different into the attack.

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