Innings
Australia 286 for 9 (Smith 131, Labuschagne 54, Shami 4-63, Jadeja 2-44, Bumrah 0-38) v India
A decision to bat first by Aaron Finch left Virat Kohli smiling ear to ear at the toss, and those smiles would have widened after an impressive show in the field to keep Australia down to 286 in the decider. Yet again, as in Rajkot, India controlled the game with wickets after the 30th over with Ravindra Jadeja creating the pressure and wickets. Jasprit Bumrah then led the stranglehold at the death. At 173 for 2 in the 32nd over, Australia had looked set for a score in the vicinity of 320, but Australia's suspect middle order was exposed once again.
If there was any hope for Australia, it was that even centurion Steven Smith was struggling to find gaps in the second half of the innings. That, and visual evidence, suggested slight slowness in the surface, but Kohli had said at the toss that he expected the dry pitch to quicken up under lights.
India's start with the ball was not that accurate with nine runs coming off wides in the first three overs. In the fourth, though, Mohammed Shami bowled a beauty to send back the dangerous David Warner. The ball shaped to swing back into him, but left him slightly after pitching just outside off. This was a dismissal fitting even for an opening hour of a Test match. Bumrah's edge over Finch was apparent again with two runs off 13 legal deliveries. Even when India removed Bumrah after just three overs, the edginess remained, especially with Navdeep Saini bowling the eighth over for just two runs.
In the ninth over, Finch perhaps went for a highly risky single to Jadeja at point, but Smith was the bigger culprit in not responding to the call from the non-striker. The run-out left Finch furious, and Smith with a big task of shepherding the suspect middle order. Except that he was met in the middle by his clone Marnus Labuschagne, who has quickly shown he doesn't need much shepherding. Yet, had Kuldeep Yadav collected a slowish throw cleanly he might have run Labuschagne out to make it 57 for 3.
That error survived, Smith and Labuschagne negotiated the middle overs well with pressure on Yadav again with 27 runs in his first four overs. Jadeja, at the other end, managed just enough turn, which also suited his extra pace. Jadeja, Kuldeep and Shami combined to put together a spell of 45 balls without a boundary. During this period, in one over from Kuldeep, Smith was beaten comprehensively in the air but his pad saved him from a stumping.
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