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Aussies Restricted To 352 As Bumrah Leads Indian Fightback After Marsh-Smith Power Antics

image-ln1ooco0Mitchell Marsh during his knock of 96 (X.com)

The World Cup 2023 is just around the corner and two of the strongest teams in the World Cup, India and Australia are currently going head-to-head at Rajkot in their final international game before the marquee event. It is another batting paradise after the one in Indore and this time, Australia after batting first, have posted a big total of 352/7. 

Australia will be happy with their performance after below-par batting performances in the initial two ODIs, while for India's bowling unit it was a good learning curve about how to go about their business on a flat deck against a quality team.

Warner-Marsh-Smith Trio Deliver Early Punch 

Australia won the toss and elected to bat first after winning the toss. Warner and Marsh opened the innings and started going after Indian bowlers right from the onset. They notched up a fifty-run stand in no time and Warner, especially looked in great touch, notching up his fifty in just 32 balls. However, his blistering knock was cut short by Prasidh Krishna in the very next over as Warner departed on 56.

The opening stand though set the platform for Australia to exploit and Steve Smith who walked in at 3, batted beautifully. Marsh, on the other end, also got to his fifty and both of them were scoring quite freely as India seemed short of answers. Australia crossed 200 run-mark just in the 27th over and Marsh who looked set for a century, departed on 96 against the run of play off the shortish delivery from Kuldeep Yadav. His wicket gave India some respite and Indian bowlers made sure that they seize the initiative and picked some quick wickets to stop the Aussie onslaught.

Bumrah and company fightback to keep India in the game

Soon after the wicket of the Marsh, Smith also departed as Siraj got the better of him with a nip-backer. The Aussie great scored 74 off 61 balls and then Bumrah who was leaking runs over 10 per over, showed why he is one of the best bowlers in world cricket, as he picked wickets of Carey and dangerous Maxwell in quick succession to derail Australia's momentum.

Green also could not last long and though Labuschagne scored 72 off 58 balls, Australia could not really explode in the last 10 overs and were restricted to a total, that is quite chaseable on a good batting deck in Rajkot.

Brief Scores

Australia - 352/7

Mitchell Marsh - 96 (84), Steven Smith - 74 (61)

Jasprit Bumrah - 3/81, Kuldeep Yadav - 2/48