Faulkner gets hosts home with six balls to spare after a pair of standout performances
Starc, Finch keep Aussies unbeaten
It was Groundhog Day in Melbourne as Mitchell Starc made it back-to-back man-of-the-match performances before James Faulkner completed Australia’s thrilling four-wicket win over India in the second Carlton Mid ODI Tri-Series match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The home side were cruising at 2-216 in pursuit of 268, but a stirring Indian fightback saw a collapse of 4-32 before Brad Haddin (13 off 11) and specialist finisher Faulkner (nine off nine) iced the game with an over to spare.
The second straight win has Australia on nine competition points following the bonus point win on Friday, leaving both India and England rooted to the bottom of the competition table.
Earlier Starc claimed career-best figures of 6-47 from 10 overs, striking early with the new ball and rattling the tail with the old to continue his impressive form as Australia’s white-ball wizard.
Mitch Starc took a career-best 6-43
Aaron Finch fell within one shot of his sixth ODI ton as he, Steve Smith (47 off 42) and Shane Watson (41 off 39) added the starch to Australia’s innings before the late scare.
India opener Rohit Sharma scored the highest one-day international score between the two countries at the MCG with 138.
Rohit made 138 to anchor the Indian innings
Rohit was well supported by Suresh Raina (51 off 63), but the tourists fell away in the final overs, losing 4-30 in the last six.
In his first match since announcing his shock retirement from Test cricket, MS Dhoni won the toss and surprisingly elected to bat first as the sun broke through the low hanging cloud onto the enormous MCG playing surface.
A close lbw appeal had keeper Brad Haddin futilely calling for the Decision Review System, but two balls later there was no need for a referral when Shikhar Dhawan edged Starc to Aaron Finch at second slip for two.
Debutant Gurinder Sandhu needed only eight balls to snare his first ODI wicket, drawing an edge from Ajinkya Rahane’s tight cut stroke through to Brad Haddin to have the visitors 2-33 in the eighth over.
The MCG sounded more like Mumbai when Virat Kohli made his way to the middle, but that wall of noise was transformed into a deafening silence when he left nine runs later.
Tempers boiled over when David Warner and Rohit came together following a run-out attempt that led to overthrows, which will no doubt catch the eye of the match referee Andy Pycroft.
Quick Single: Tempers flare after contentious single
While Rohit was motoring along to a 68-ball fifty, Raina was providing the support and building the crucial partnership that England lacked in Game 1 on Friday.
The pair batted for 22 overs and added 126 to give the visitors some much sought after momentum, but just after Raina joined Rohit in the half-century club, he holed out to mid-on to the disgust of his partner at the non-striker’s end.
Kohli’s celebrated entry was matched when India’s captain swaggered to the crease, and the decibel count reached jet engine levels when Rohit’s outside edge flew to third man to bring up his sixth ODI hundred off 109 deliveries.
In an effort to restrict India’s swelling total, Bailey re-enlisted the help of his premier strike bowler Starc, and in the space of four balls he had Dhoni (19) and Axar Patel (0) back in the pavilion.
Four overs later Starc collected his fifth and sixth wickets and hand his side the same total to chase as they did successfully in November against the Proteas.
Coming out of the innings interval there were murmurs about the complacency shown in the field by Bailey and his men who finished the Indian innings 25 minutes outside the permitted time.
Only two overs of spin were bowled in India’s 50 overs, and with a strike already against his name, Bailey faced a one-match suspension if he was deemed too slow in the field.
Whether this was a deliberate tactic or not, in order to wipe the skipper's slate clean ahead of the World Cup, only the inner sanctum will know.
If India battled against the two new balls at the top their innings, Warner and Finch relished the challenge.
Driving, pulling, crashing and bashing, Australia’s openers took the attack to the attack, posting a 50-run stand in 52 balls.
But just as Warner was looking like going big again for the second-straight match, his bubbling aggression burst, top-edging Umesh Yadav to go for 24 from 22 balls.
The wicket of Australia’s dynamic opening batsman brought two men in need of a run together, and the new man Shane Watson picked up the slack, hitting five boundaries in his first 20 balls to maintain the hosts’ progress.
Another half-century stand, this one off 62 balls, solidified Australia’s dominance, but just when Watson was looking likely to convert a super start, an unnecessary sweep well outside off-stump was missed and he was gone for 41.
Where Watson’s impatience got the better of him, Finch’s determination was rewarded with an 80-ball fifty, and if he ever needed a reminder of the benefit of patience, his new partner Steve Smith was a glowing example.
But every time India got a breakthrough, Australia would regroup and repeat; Finch continued as the anchor while the new man attacked, and after 51 balls, the third-straight fifty partnership was recorded.
Australia’s 200 was raised after 36 overs, and just after the partnership reached triple figures, Smith’s ungainly swat found Ashwin at mid-wicket to go for 47.
India finally got successive wickets much to the dismay of Australian fans – Finch the man to go, caught behind for 96 to give Yadav his second wicket.
More drama followed when Bailey was caught behind off Patel down the leg-side to fall for five with 38 needed and as many balls left.
Glenn Maxwell continued to attack, but his short-term gains were quickly forgotten when he chipped a Bhuvneshwar Kumar slower ball back to the bowler to leave 20 left with as many balls remaining.
But a quick look of his resume indicated a tight finish was part and parcel of Faulkner’s now growing reputation as the game’s coolest head in a run chase, and with Haddin, he secured the win and all but assured Australia of a spot in the final.
Australia XI: George Bailey (c), Aaron Finch, David Warner, Shane Watson, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Brad Haddin, James Faulkner, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Gurinder Sandhu.
India XI: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni, Axar Patel, Ravi Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav.
Australia’s World Cup Fixtures
February 14: v England, 2:30pm at the MCG
February 21: v Bangladesh, 1:30pm at the Gabba
February 28: v New Zealand, 2:00pm at Eden Park (NZ)
March 4: v Afghanistan, 2:30pm at the WACA
March 8: v Sri Lanka, 2:30pm at the SCG
March 13: v Scotland, 2:30pm at Blundstone Arena
View the full fixture list here
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