Ind vs Aus: Dhoni’s presence will surely motivate the Indian team ahead of the series’ decider.
Chennai: With the IPL set to start in a little over a week, former India skipper MS Dhoni is in Chennai for the preparations. Co-incidentally, the Indian team will host Australia in the third and final ODI at the Chepauk stadium on Wednesday and a report on InsideSport confirms that Dhoni would be meeting Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli today and also be present for the game tomorrow. Dhoni’s presence will surely motivate the Indian team ahead of the series decider. The Indian team has not lost a bilateral ODI series at home over the past four years and hence there is a lot to play for.
Dhoni was there at Ranchi when the team was playing recently. He had met Ishan Kishan then.
Earlier, there was a scare of the second ODI at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium failing to start due to heavy rain being forecast for the day. Thankfully, the match began on time, much to the joy of fans in the stadium.
But the spirits were dampened as it turned into a horror show for India as the hosts crashed to 117 all out in 26 overs after being asked to bat first. Left-arm fast-bowler Mitchell Starc emerged as the main architect of Australia bundling out India for their fourth-lowest total at home, claiming his ninth five-wicket haul in ODI cricket.
Brief scores:
India 117 in 26 overs (Virat Kohli 31, Axar Patel 29 not out; Mitchell Starc 5-53, Sean Abbott 3-23) lost to Australia 121 for no loss in 11 overs (Mitchell Marsh 66 not out, Travis Head 51 not out) by 10 wickets