India vs Australia 2019: 4 reasons why India lost the ODI series decider

After being 0-2 down in the series, Australia has made a stunning comeback as they won the last three games to win the series 3-2. This is the first time India has lost a home ODI series since their loss to South Africa in 2015. This series loss comes at the wrong time for India as this was their last ODI series before the World Cup.

In the decider, Aaron Finch won the toss and choose to bat first on a slightly slow Feroz Shah Kotla wicket. Both the teams had made two changes to their playing XIs from the previous games. Batting first, Australia started well as the openers put up a 50 plus opening stand.

A century from Usman Khawaja and a fifty from Peter Handscomb helped them put up a total of 9/272. Kuldeep Yadav and Mohammad Shami were a bit expensive whereas the other bowled well. Chasing 273, India lost Shikhar Dhawan early. India received the body blows in the middle-overs when the Australian spinners spun a web around the Indian batsmen. Kedar Jadhav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar fought for a while but it was not to be for India.

Australia would be really happy with this series win as they were struggling of late. On the other hand, India would be really disappointed that they have lost a series at the wrong time. Let’s have a look at the reasons as to why India lost the series decider against Australia.

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#1 A good opening partnership for Australia

Usman Khawaja

The Australian openers – Aaron Finch and Usman Khawaja, who had good opening partnerships in the second and the third ODI replicated the same in the fifth ODI as they put on another 50 plus opening partnership.

They started off brilliantly in the first power-play as they hit at least one boundary in almost every over. They kept the scoreboard ticking and didn’t give away their wickets to the Indian seamers. Finch started off a bit slowly and was happy to play the second fiddle to his opening partner Khawaja.

On the other hand, Khawaja just continued from where he left in Mohali. He showed his class from the word go as he started his innings with a flurry of boundaries. The opening partnership from Finch and Khawaja set up the perfect platform for the batsmen to come and that’s the reason Australia were able to post a good total.

#2 The partnership between Khawaja and Handscomb

Peter Handscomb

The opening partnership between Finch and Khawaja had set up the perfect platform for the middle-order batsmen. After the dismissal of Finch, Peter Handscomb joined Khawaja to continue the good work. Once again they batted almost flawlessly in the middle overs and put a 99 run partnership for the third wicket.

They were rotating the strike nicely and getting a boundary whenever they wanted. They didn’t allow the spinners to settle as they attacked Kedar Jadhav and Kuldeep Yadav from the start itself. Khawaja scored the second hundred off the series. Handscomb too backed up his century with a well composed fifty.

They controlled the middle overs nicely. Australia had a slight collapse after the fall of Usman Khawaja but the partnership between Handscomb and Khawaja had ensured that Australia would reach a total that would be enough for the pitch at Kotla and it turned out to be so.

#3 Two of the Indian top three didn’t fire

Shikhar Dhawan

The fact that the Indian team is heavily dependent on the top three is well known to everyone. Whenever the top three doesn’t fire, India finds it difficult to win the game. It was a similar story at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. Interestingly, India had two local boys in the top three and surprisingly those were the two who failed to get going.

Shikhar Dhawan, who had scored a brilliant century in the last game, looked good for a while as he stroked a few boundaries but got out on 12. The big blow came for India when they lost the 'chase master' Virat Kohli on 20. The Indian skipper chased a wide delivery and edged to the keeper. Rohit Sharma was the only one who scored a half-century and tried to chase the score for a while. But the two blows at the top were one of the reasons as to why India lost the game.

#4 Australian spinners ran through India’s middle order

Adam Zampa

Two out of the top three for India hadn’t fired, so it was up to the middle order to step up and win the game for the team. Rishabh Pant, Vijay Shankar and Ravindra Jadeja had the ideal opportunities to score runs and seal their spots for the World Cup. But the Australian spinners had some other plans.

First, it was the off-spinner Nathan Lyon’s turn. He bowled a peach of a delivery to get rid of Pant. Soon, Adam Zampa too joined the party. First, he picked up the wicket of Shankar while he was batting on 16. He then came back to get the wickets of Rohit Sharma and Jadeja in a single over. His double-wicket maiden over turned the game.

The Australian spinners spun a web around the Indian middle-order batsmen as India collapsed from 2/91 to 6/136. This collapse is one of the main reasons as to why India couldn’t chase down the total of 273.