Australia vs India 2018-19: India's Recent Record in Bilateral Series-Deciders Gives Hopes of a Victorious End to the Tour
Updated - 17 Jan 2019, 06:27 PM
A nail-biting clash is on the cards as both Australia, and Indian National Cricket team will clash in the series decider at Melbourne on January 18 (Friday) to mark the end of the series.
The Champions of Cricket win in 1985 and the CB series win in 2008 are the two memorable memories that India has from their multiple tours to Australia. In all these years India has played a bilateral ODI series only once before, in 2016, which they lost 1-4 and Virat Kohli’s team will look to put the record straight come Friday.
However, since the Virat Kohli took over the captaincy baton, Indian National Cricket team has had a rather good record in bilateral series deciders.
In July 2017, India went into the series decider against Windies 2-1, and the hosts had a chance to draw level in the decider in Jamaica. However, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav restricted Windies to 205 for nine before Virat Kohli played a match-winning knock to see off the target.
Later in October same year, New Zealand’s Tom Latham and Ross Taylor propelled New Zealand to a lead in the series. In the decider at Kanpur, Rohit Sharma (147) and Virat Kohli (113) struck fluent centuries to put the hosts in command with a total of 337 runs. The Kiwis were on target with their chase yet again, only for Jasprit Bumrah to derail them in the death with some excellent bowling.
India beat Sri Lanka in the decider at Vizag in December 2017 for another 2-1 scoreline, before losing two straight matches to England in July 2018 to concede the series. That is the only time India has lost the deciding game of an ODI bilateral series under Virat Kohli’s captaincy.
