India are standing on the verge of witnessing one more clean sweep against the Aussies, as the host consolidated their lead by 4-0 at the end of 4th ODI played in Canberra a little while earlier. India tried to show some resilience but end result remained the same as the visitors swallowed one more humiliating defeat by 25 runs from the jaws of victory.

Shikhar Dhawan

Winning the toss, Australia batted first and piled a huge total of 348/8 in 50 overs. David Warner was particularly impressive as he hit a fine 93 off 92 balls with 12 boundaries and a six adding an important 187 run partnership for the first wicket. Then Aaron Finch also carried on the momentum crafting a fine run-a-ball century. He was caught by Ishant Sharma off Umesh Yadav at 37.3 overs but he already hit a brilliant 107 (107b, 4s x 9, 6s x 2) by then.

With still 8 wickets in hand and around 72-ball remaining, the middle order batsmen exploited the opportunity well adding around 220 more runs to the scoreboard. Captain Steve Smith 51 (29b, 4s x 4, 6s x 3) and Glenn Maxwell 41 (20b, 4s x 6, 6s x 1) played explosive knocks down the order to take the scoreboard to 348 after 50 overs.

Indian bowlers were highly expensive yet Ishant Sharma 4 for 77 and Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3 for 67 got success to some extent. Rest of the bowlers were not that much effective to curtail Aussie’s run-rate or get wickets. India looked much more confident when they came out to bat. Rohit Sharma took the opening strike and scored a gutsy 41 off 25balls with 2 boundaries and 3 sixes adding 65-run for the first wicket in just 8 overs.

Virat Kohli then joined the party and played fluently with Shikhar Dhawan hitting boundaries and doubles without much difficulty. Left-handed Shikhar Dhawan was playing some really good cricket as he hit an elegant hundred for the team’s cause. He got out at the 37.3 overs to J. Hastings giving an easy catch to Bailey. He scored a brilliant 126 (113b, 4s x 14, 6s x 2) and added a mammoth 212 run partnership with Virat Kohli at the other end.

With India losing another wicket at 277 for 2, this was set to be the make or break moment for India and unfortunately team India broke the moment as both Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni departed in the next 2 overs. Virat Kohli played a fine knock of 106 (92b, 4s x 11, 6s x 1) but was caught at the hands of Steve Smith while trying to hit Kane Richardson up in the air. Dhoni got dismissed miserably for a duck without opening his account.

Apart from Jadeja 24* (27b, 4s x 1), tail enders showed no interest to stay at the pitch with many of them got out at irresponsible shots. Eventually, India got all out at 323 at 49.2 overs with Kane Richardson picking up 5 for 68 in his 10 over spell giving 25-run victory to Australia.

Tags: 4th ODI, Australia, Canberra, Cricket, India, Manuka Oval, MS Dhoni, ODI Series, Preview, Shikhar Dhawan, Sports, Virat Kohli