Australia conclude their tour of India on Wednesday when the two sides head to Chennai for what will be a deciding ODI in the three match series and one last chance for the latest set of preparation for the World Cup to take place.
India won the opening ODI in the series but had absolutely no answer to the Australian fightback in the second game and that has set us up for what should be a very entertaining and competitive deciding ODI.
India
There is a solid argument to be made that India haven’t played all that well in this series so far. That might sound a little strange when we consider that they have won a match already but they were well behind in that until Australia collapsed and even then they weren’t as convincing as you would have liked them to be. They are mixing and matching with their players though as they navigate a busy period ahead of the IPL so it is harsh to be too critical but Indian teams are judged on perfection.
We are used to the Indian batting being a lot better than it has been so far in this series. Those players who get the shirt for this final match have one last chance to show what they can do against a decent side because you would imagine the remaining ODIs that India play ahead of the World Cup they will use the majority of the squad they are likely to have in that tournament and there won’t be many chances to force their way in.
Australia
When you consider the amount of injuries that Australia have had and the fact that this series came straight after a really competitive Test series, Australia deserve a lot of credit for bouncing back from the disappointment of the opening game to force this decider. If their primary aim was to gain some confidence for when they return to India for the ODI World Cup in October you would think they have achieved that in which case this is a free hit for them.
Had it not been for a very random collapse with the bat in the opening game there is a strong case to be made that Australia would have already won the series by now. They did collapse but to their credit they came back strong in the second game. We’ll never know whether their middle order would function better in the second game because they were not needed. I guess that is where the doubt comes going into this final match.
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Team News
India are not ones for changing the team when they lose. They often ask the same players to go out and put things right but given how the batting completely fluffed their lines last time out it might be that Washington Sundar gets a start.
Australia will be keeping an eye on the fitness of David Warner and Glenn Maxwell to see if they are available to come into the side. One man who might automatically find his way in is Ashton Agar with spinning conditions expected.
Betting
The MA Chidambaram Stadium is actually higher scoring than many think it might be but this has been a low scoring series so far and I’m not convinced that is going to change here in Chennai. Australia have struggled against spinners throughout this tour and Chennai is famous for turning pitches and even though the IPL is about to begin, I don’t expect that trend to change here so I’m expecting a low scoring decider, perhaps not to the extent of the first two but certainly not we would get on some grounds.
I’m actually surprised that the run line for this match is up at 600.5 for this decider. Excluding those Asia vs Africa matches in 2007, there has only been one score of 300 on this ground in 20 matches and that in itself highlights that the run line looks way out of line. Another thing would be how the ball has dominated the bat throughout this tour and with India missing key batters I just don’t see this being a 300+ playing 300+ sort of match. I’ll play the under.
Tips
Back Under 600.5 runs for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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