India suffered a rare ODI series defeat at the hands of Australia, losing the third match of the series by 21 runs at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Wednesday, March 22. The loss meant that Steve Smith’s team won the three-match series 2-1. After failing to chase down the target of 270 runs, India were bowled out for 248, with Adam Zampa picking up four wickets.
India captain Rohit Sharma was highly critical of his team’s batting performance and expressed disappointment at their inability to win the series.
“I don’t think it was too many runs. The wicket was a little challenging towards the second half. I don’t think we batted well. Partnerships are crucial, and we failed to do that today,” Rohit said at the post-match presentation.
“The mode of dismissals… You are born and brought up on these wickets. Sometimes you need to apply yourself, and give yourself a chance. It was important for one batter to carry on and take the game deep. But all of us were trying our best; it just didn’t happen,” he added.
Despite the loss, Rohit believes that the nine home ODIs played since January have provided his team with several positives and that they are well-prepared for the upcoming ODI World Cup.
“The nine ODIs we have played since January, we can take a lot of positives from that,” he said.
There is no denying that there’s a lot of room for improvement.
“We need to understand where we need to improve. It’s a collective failure, we can take a lot of learnings from this series. Credit to the Australians. Both the spinners applied the pressure and so did their seamers,” the Indian skipper added further.
Meanwhile, stand-in Aussie captain Steve described the tour as ‘enjoyable’ after his team’s victory in the ODI series. Australia had previously lost the four-match Test series 2-1 but managed to qualify for the World Test Championships Final, where they will face India. The victory in the ODI series was yet another come-from-behind win for the Australian team.
“It has been an enjoyable tour. The way we fought back after that (Delhi) Test match. It is just playing conditions for us. This wicket was different… I thought we left a few out there. It was just a really good performance. We continued taking wickets throughout… The way the tail stuck around and got us to 270; at one point, we weren’t getting to 220,” said Smith.
