The match lived up-to the reputation of new rivalry between the top teams of cricket fraternity. The ground had 95% people of Indian origin. The ground looked blue all over. Australian supporters were dwarfed by sea gate of vociferous supporters of India. Constant bantering in Hindi was unnerving for players like Khwaja, Starc, Cummins and Maxwell.
Indian Innings
Sun was shining and pitch was expected to behave the Indian way - no swing, low bounce and even paced in other words batting delight.So Kohli called the right choice to bat
Openers Shikhar and Rohit, went for their job like true professionals. They waited for first spell to go by. No reckless shots, no flamboyance and 41 in 10 overs laid the foundation for the onslaught. Australia has only 2 quality bowlers and rest are pedestrian.
So 100 was achieved in 19th over. The bowlers like Coulter Nile, Zampa, Stoinis were milked. Rohit lost his wicket after a well deserved half century and King Kohli joined him.
It was a show for mercurial Dhawan. He scored his 3rd century in 5 outings at Oval. Kohli didn't take any risk and he was simply rotating strike for Shikhar to blast 117 runs in 109 balls.
In the process he finished the confidence off Australian attack.
Now the onslaught begin by Pandya at 2 down( a surprise) and then Dhoni firing on quick cylinder. The result was 352.
A score which has not been chased before. Starc gave 74 runs 4th and 5th bowler gave 157 runs in aggregate. This sums up the plight.
Australian Innings
No can can shrug away the Australian fightback. Finch and Warner went business like Indians. They didn't take any risk and went about four runs an over. An unfortunate run out of Finch gave a push to Indian spirit. Smith and Warner steadied the ship.
Warmer played an uncharacteristic innings of 56 in 84 balls. The spinners choked Khwaja and Smith in such a manner that Khwaja went for his shots and perished. Now came the cameo of Maxwell.
However, Bhubhneshwar removed Smith and Stoinis in one over and sealed it for India. Carrey scored 50 of 25 balls and showed that he is a 360 degree player but the target was too heavy. Death bowling of Bumrah with his yourkers blunted big hitters like Coulter Nile and Cummins.
Finally Australian Innings folded at 316.
India won by 36 runs and inched closer to semifinal berth.
A wonderful game, where batting display overpowered bowling owing to insipid pitch.
Man of the Match Shikhar created fireworks and silenced his critiques who gun for his neck.
This is Niraj signing off to move to Southampton.
