Australia vs India 2018/19: 3 Unnoticed things from the second ODI
Australia had won the first ODI quite comfortably and came into the second ODI high on confidence. Aaron Finch won the toss and elected to bat first yet again. The Australian captain failed again in the series with the bat. However, Shaun Marsh continued his golden form and scored a delightful century.
Marsh has been the lone fighter for Australia in recent ODIs. He had four consecutive 50+ run partnerships with four different players which helped the home team to post close to 300 runs on the board.
In reply to the target of 299 runs, the prolific Indian openers gave India a decent start. Shikhar Dhawan scored 32 runs off 28 balls and Rohit Sharma fell 7 runs short of a half-century.
Virat Kohli kept the chase on with his 39th ODI century as his love affair with Adelaide Oval continued. India won the all-important second ODI. There are a few things that the fans might have missed during the game. Let us have a look at them:
#1 Shaun Marsh scores century and Australia lost again
Shaun Marsh has been Australia's best-limited overs batsman in last one year. He has scored four centuries in his last 8 ODI innings. Though his Test form is under scrutiny, his ODI form has been top notch. Unfortunately, all the four recent century from the southpaw have come in losing cause.
Marsh scored 131 against England in June 2018 but that didn't help Australia to chase down a big total of 342 runs. In the same series, he had scored another century alongside Finch which helped the team to post 310 runs but that too was not enough as England chased down the target inside 45 overs. He scored one more century in recent home series against South Africa in a chase but the Aussies failed to chase 300+ yet again.
It has been disheartening to see such valuable innings end in losing cause. In the second ODI of the ongoing series against India, he scored his fourth ODI century in last four months. Australia posted 298 runs and they were confident to win once they saw the back of Indian openers. But Kohli's masterclass ensured that India levelled the series and another of Marsh’s ODI centuries went in vain.