Bhuvneshwar Kumar had accounted for Aaron Finch’s wicket in the first two ODIs, and that trend continued in the third and final ODI of the series on Friday. After scoring six runs each in the first and second ODI at Sydney and Adelaide before falling to Bhuvi, Finch didn’t do much to help his sorry ODI record in recent times at Melbourne.
He was dismissed for 14 runs after being adjudged leg before. The head-to-head statistics between Finch and Bhuvaneshwar now reads: 37 balls, 30 dots, 16 runs and 3 wickets.
Interestingly, on the ball before the dismissal, Finch pulled away at the very last minute, after Bhuvi delivered the ball. The release from the Indian seamer came from behind the umpire, which presumably made Finch pull out. Immediately, the umpire called it a dead ball.
Bhuvneshwar, however, wasn’t too pleased to see the delivery being ruled out. He motioned towards the umpire and asked ‘What for?’ before the Indian skipper Virat Kohli, too, stepped in and had a chat.
Finch was bowled by Bhuvneshwar in the first two ODIs after the ball came back in to get the right hander – the first one finding gap between bat and pad, and the second getting chopped on. In the third ODI on Friday, the ball came back in once again and this time it beat Finch’s inside edge to strike the pad first. The Aussie opener had moved well ahead of the crease to defend, but missed the ball completely to be struck on the knee roll.
This one was called a dead ball… #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/8V7ElRzZd9
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) 18 January 2019
This one was called lbw… #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/Kno6FrQvm6
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) 18 January 2019
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Finch’s ODI summer ended at the MCG with a tally of 83 runs in six innings against South Africa and India. He has scored only one half-century in 23 international innings across all formats. His next assignments are the away series in India and Pakistan, before a much needed break.
