India vs Australia 2019: 3 unnoticed things from the 3rd ODI

In the third ODI held at Ranchi, Virat Kohli won the toss and decided to chase. The Australian openers came out all guns blazing as Aaron Finch and Usman Khawaja put up a huge opening stand of 193 runs. Khawaja completed his century, but Finch fell just short.

Glenn Maxwell gave some momentum to the Australian innings, before he too fell to the brilliance of Jadeja and Dhoni. The Aussies lost their way towards the end, and could not finish the innings on a high. They scored only 127 runs in their last 20 overs, thus setting India a score of 314 runs to chase.

The Indian openers disappointed once again as both Dhawan and Rohit fell early. India’s no. 4 Ambati Rayudu also failed to impress again, as he was dismissed only for two runs.

Virat Kohli, the Indian captain, was again fighting a lone battle, but he could not get his team across the line as he yorked himself against Zampa on 123. Vijay Shankar tried to take the game deep but to no avail as India lost the match by 32 runs.

Let us have a look at some of the things that might have gone unnoticed in today’s match:

#1 Aaron Finch in the nervous nineties against India

Aaron Finch

Aaron Finch found himself returning to form in the 3rd ODI of the series, as he made a well compiled 93. Finch showed excellent composure against both pace and spin, and showed why he is labelled as one of the most destructive openers in world cricket.

The interesting thing to note though, was Finch getting out in the nineties. Aaron Finch has got out in the nineties three times in his career, and surprisingly, all three occasions have occurred against Indian bowling attack.

Here are the stats:

96 vs Ind (2015)

94 vs Ind (2017)

93 vs Ind (2019)

No player ever likes being dismissed in the nineties, and Finch would surely try to improve on this stat of his.

#2 Rohit Sharma becomes fastest to 350 sixes

Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma became the fastest man on the planet to hit 350 sixes in ODI cricket. He reached the landmark in just 331 innings (111 innings faster than Chris Gayle).

Here is a list of the fastest batsmen to reach 350 6s in ODI cricket:

Rohit - 331 Innings*

Afridi - 367 Innings

B McCullum - 440 Innings

Gayle - 442 Innings

Dhoni - 515 Innings

Jayasuriya - 630 Innings

The 350th six off the bat of Rohit Sharma was as elegant as it could get. He smashed Pat Cummins straight over his head and held his pose in the most beautiful possible way.

When it comes to smacking it out of the park, there are hardly any players who can match Rohit’s ability, and he also has the best six hitting ratio in ODI cricket.

#3 Weird behaviour of DRS in Aaron Finch’s dismissal

Aaron Finch

Australia were going strong; they were at 193-0 in 31 overs, and were looking on course to get at least 350. On the second last ball of the 32nd over, Aaron Finch was adjudged out LBW off Kuldeep Yadav.

Finch looked out to the naked eye, but chancing his luck, he went for a review, but the ball tracker showed the ball pitching on a completely different line as to actually where it pitched.

The trajectory of the ball changed due to the wrong detection of ball pitching, and the ball went on to hit the middle stump, although Finch might have still been out, as the ball was expected to hit leg stump.

Various issues have been raised regarding DRS earlier, and such incidents give more voice to these issues, and international cricket cannot afford to have such glitches in technology.

Here’s a video of what happened:

What on earth has just happened with the Finch LBW? Ball tracker has the ball pitching somewhere completely different, and that sort of affects the trajectory doesn't it. Might still be out, but bizarre. #INDvAUS #Finch pic.twitter.com/fDyZR1X0p0

— Raunak Kapoor (@RaunakRK) March 8, 2019