India vs Australia 3rd ODI: We Don't Want to See Any More Collapses: Virat Kohli

Australia kept the 5 match series against India alive after registering a comprehensive 32 runs victory in the 3^rd ODI in Ranchi to make the scoreline 2-1. It was an exceptional knock by Indian skipper Virat Kohli who scored a magical knock of 123 of 95 deliveries. However, his knock wasn’t enough to win India the game. Earlier in the day, it was a great century by Usman Khawaja and a 93 by Aaron Finch which helped the visitors post a commendable score of 312 on the board.

Usman Khawaja was declared the man of the match for his wonderful knock. The southpaw was in complete control of proceedings and shared a stand of 193 runs with Aaron Finch for the opening wicket. Glenn Maxwell also scored a brilliant 47 before falling to a brilliant piece of fielding by Ravindra Jadeja. MS Dhoni deflected the ball onto the stumps and Maxwell was way short of the crease.

The Indian bowlers made a terrific comeback in the final few overs and didn’t allow Australia to go after the bowlers. At one stage they looked well in pursuit of a score in excess of 350. But it didn’t quite materialize in the end as the Indian bowlers bowled in the right areas. Kuldeep Yadav despite conceding 64 runs bagged 3 important wickets to stall the Australian progress in the final few overs.

The home team lost both the openers in quick succession. Rohit Sharma was surprised with the 3^rd umpire overturning the decision by the on-field umpire. Despite two early wickets, Virat Kohli kept India in the match with a counter-attacking approach. He took the Australian bowlers to the cleaners and completed yet another century. It was his 41^st and he looks well set to break Sachin Tendulkar’s record in a few year’s time.

The Australian bowlers kept pegging away with the wickets despite a valiant knock from Kohli. He was eventually dismissed by Adam Zampa on 123 of 95 deliveries. After his dismissal, it was always going to be an uphill task for India. Eventually, Australia bowled India out for 281 runs, thus handing Australia a 32 runs victory.

Virat Kohli reflected on how the match panned out and what sort of changes we might see in the next few matches.

We were especially the way we pulled things back in the first innings. With the way Australia was going, we thought we would have been chasing 350+. I was told dew would come in in the evening, but that didn’t happen and I got that wrong. The wicket wasn’t improving at all and wasn’t getting easy for batting. They kept pitching the ball in the good areas, then I got out and Vijay got out and that’s about it.

We are a team that has taken a lot of pride in our cricket. We don’t want to see anymore collapses. In terms of hitting the ball well, it was one of my finest hundreds. I was feeling well since ball one. I was really disappointed with the way I got out. Yeah, we will have a few changes in the next couple of games. A little hiccup in the middle, but we will regroup and come back strongly.