Australia win by two wickets, with 22 balls to spare
That’s the series 2-0 to Australia, with one to play in Sydney on Saturday. They get the win, and it never really felt as close as the final margin suggests. At 132 for 4, maybe, when Carey fell, or 187 for 5 when it was Short getting out, those were the points when it might have been close. But Connolly settled things down after the Carey wicket, and Owen counterpunched so effectively after Short was out that he more or less finished the contest then and there. India had a slight chance at the end but not enough runs to play with. Even another 10 runs added to that target could have made that last passage of play much nervier.
Connolly on the telly says that he looked calm but was nervous when he came out to bat, but was pretty calm by the end even when Zampa came out to join him. It was his most complete and convincing innings for Australia, given that he’s missed out on batting at all in more than half of his international matches. Zampa is player of the match though for his four wickets. Up the bowlers.
India were fairly decent with the bat today, thanks to Rohit and Shreyas with some help from Axar, but still underclubbed on that first innings. They’ve got problems with bowler injuries and fatigue, and not that many options left in the squad. Prasidh Krishna and Kuldeep Yadav will surely come in for Sydney, but India may need a third option. Can they get someone from the T20 squad in? Send an SOS to T Natarajan!
That’s it from us, we’ll see you on Saturday.
Updated
46.2 overs: Australia 265-8 (Connolly 61, Zampa 0) It’s a bit of anticlimax in the end. Connolly stays cool, waits for Arshdeep Singh, and drives two through cover. Then two from the next ball, to tie the scores. As Arshdeep tries the bouncer, it balloons too high, and it’s called a wide. So that will be that.
