India vs Australia 2017, 4th ODI: 5 reasons why India were humbled in Bengaluru
Australia finally registered a win in the series by beating India by 21 runs in the fourth ODI at Bangalore. Batting first, a sensational opening partnership of 231 between Aaron Finch and David Warner, who went on to score 94 and 124 respectively, set the tone for the visitors.
In reply, India batted pretty well with Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, and Kedar Jadhav registering fifties. However, the middle-order could not deal with the pressure during the death overs and the hosts ended their innings at 313/8 from their 50 overs. Let’s take a look at five reasons why India suffered their first defeat of the series.
#5. Inability of the middle-order batsmen to finish off the innings
India began their run-chase well with Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma batting brilliantly, putting on an opening partnership of 106. Following the dismissal of both openers and Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya and Kedar Jadhav took on the scoring responsibilities, keeping India in the match.
Following Pandya’s dismissal, Manish Pandey came joined Jadhav at the crease. However, both batsmen were unable to bat with the required aggression as India’s required run-rate soared past 10.
Jadhav was dismissed for 67 following which MS Dhoni joined Pandey at the crease as the match gradually got out of India’s reach. Dhoni’s six during the 48th over gave the Indians some hope but he was bowled by Kane Richardson soon after which all but confirmed India’s defeat.
Even Axar Patel could do nothing to keep his side in the game and the Men in Blue ended 21 runs short.