Chennai: Australia did what no one had thought. Defeated India in the ODI series at its own home. Australia defeated Team India by 21 runs in the third and decisive match played at MA Chidambaram Stadium on Wednesday to win the three-match ODI series 2-1. Team India had got a target of 270 runs, in front of which they were bundled out for 248 runs in 49.1 overs. Team India fought but could not win. For that, Virat Kohli scored the maximum 54 runs. But if it is said that India lost because of this Kohli’s innings, then probably it would not be wrong. Kohli faced 72 balls in the third ODI and played a half-century with the help of two fours and a six. But this innings of his could not win the team, but definitely became the reason for the defeat. During this innings, Kohli’s strike rate was just 75 and he failed to put his foot on the accelerator on time.
Kohli lost his rhythm
Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill gave India a good start and added 65 runs in 9 overs for the first wicket. Rohit was dismissed on the first ball of the 10th over and Gill was dismissed after 12 runs on a total score of 77. After falling for two consecutive wickets, the team needed to be handled and Kohli did the same with KL Rahul. Till this everything was going well. Kohli and Rahul were slowly managing the innings, rotating the strike. At one time he had as many runs as he played balls. When the 20th over ended, Kohli had 29 runs in 29 balls. By the end of the 21st over, he had 30 runs in 30 balls. Seeing this score, it seemed that Kohli has been set and now he will hit fours and sixes in his colors, but the opposite happened as Kohli progressed, there was a difference between his runs and balls. Kohli had 31 runs in 36 balls. There were 36 runs in 43 balls. Then there were 40 runs in 48 balls. Meanwhile, KL Rahul was out and here Kohli was close to his half-century.
Akshar Patel run out
Meanwhile, when Kohli was moving towards his half-century, he started playing more defensively. He was not rotating the strike the way he was doing in the beginning. Meanwhile, Akshar Patel was run out due to a misunderstanding between taking runs with Kohli. On the fifth ball of the 29th over, Patel played a shot towards square leg and wanted to take a run. This call was from Kohli because the ball was behind the stumps. At first he said yes and Patel came to half the pitch but Kohli himself did not go far even after his call and sent Patel back midway. Steve Smith did a great fielding and Carey dismissed Dive Mar Patel. This was an important wicket. Here, if Patel would have stayed and made a partnership, Australia would have been under pressure and the result could have been in favor of India.
Unnecessary shot played out
Kohli then completed his half-century by taking a single off the first ball of the 31st over, for which he faced 61 balls. At one time there was no difference between Kohli’s runs and the balls he played. Then this difference increased to six, then nine. And by the time he reached his half-century, it took 11 balls. Then it seemed that Kohli would return only after winning the team, but this great batsman wanted to play a big shot off the ball of Ashton Agar, who brought the 36th over, and in this attempt, he caught David Warner. Here Kohli could have avoided playing this shot but he played this shot and he got out. As soon as Kohli was dismissed, the Australian team dominated the match and then did not give any chance to India to come back in the match. The result was that India had to face a series defeat at home and also lost the number-1 position in the ODI rankings.
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