India v Australia: fifth and final one-day international – live!

4.10am EDT04:10

2nd over: Australia 9-0 (Khawaja 8, Finch 1) Shami, back into the Indian team after missing the fourth ODI through injury, beats Finch with a good’un begin. Oh, and next up, the captain is an inch or two away from another two-ball duck, nearly chopping on with a miscued cut! It gets him off the mark, though. Phew. Khawaja’s turn and, by contrast, he’s in lovely touch, leaning into a crisp and compact cover drive to record a second boundary in as many overs.

4.04am EDT04:04

1st over: Australia 4-0 (Khawaja 4, Finch 0) Khawaja takes the first ball rather than Finch, which amuses Matthew Hayden – openers bantz, you see. “Alfie used to boss me around… you may look like a gladiator, but I am the boss!” Sorry, I’ll try not to mention him every other over. The left-hander is watchful to begin before clipping, rather gorgeously, through square leg for four to get his afternoon going.

4.00am EDT04:00

The players are on the field! Finch and Khawaja are the Australian openers. Bhuvi, the King of Swing, has the ball in his hand for India. This should be FUN. Play!

3.51am EDT03:51

Aaron Finch. The 93 he made on Friday in the third ODI was meant to set things straight after a truly awful home season, but the second ball blob he registered on Sunday – out in such familiar fashion, bowled through the gate – makes this innings another major test for the captain. Sure, he has three ODIs and a couple of T20s in the UAE against Pakistan coming up, so this is far from his last chance. But as we are seeing with Shaun Marsh, there are fine margins in a World Cup year.

3.45am EDT03:45

I neglected to mention that if you’re new to the OBO, that this works best if we chat throughout. Find me in the usual places, on email or in the twitter swamp.

While we wait, I enjoyed Tanya’s Spin column yesterday about the domestic season we have waiting for us in England this year – the last one of its kind.

3.43am EDT03:43

What to make of the Marsh omission? Before this series, he had put together a stretch of ODI form that had him considered the first Australia batsman picked for the World Cup. Now, after an injury and a quiet couple of games, he’s lost his spot. Meanwhile, Maxwell, Stoinis and Turner coming in one after another is tasty.

As for Chahal, it will concern him that Kohli sees the extra quick (Shami) as the combination they want in the WC. With Jadeja’s batting, it will make it tough for him to partner Kuldeep as India’s second spinner. That’s mighty stiff on the leggie.

3.39am EDT03:39

India: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Vijay Shankar, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.

Australia: Aaron Finch (c), Usman Khawaja, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Ashton Turner, Alex Carey (wk), Jhye Richardson, Pat Cummins, Adam Zampa, Nathan Lyon.

3.36am EDT03:36

Aaron Finch has won the toss, Australia to bat first

The Australian skipper says the pitch is dry so the decision was easy. Shaun Marsh misses out for Marcus Stoinis (that’s significant) and spinner Nathan Lyon is back for quick Jason Behrendorff.

Kohli says that they would also have batted first. “This is more like a knock-out game for us. We have that kind of mentality. We are one of the best chasing teams in the world so we will have to show that today.”

As for the Indian team, leggie Chahal misses out for all-rounder Jadeja. And Shami returns from injury to take the new ball, at the expense of batsman KL Rahul. That’s also interesting. Kohli says this is pretty much the combination they are after when they arrive at the World Cup.

3.31am EDT03:31

Welcome to the final (and it is a final!) ODI between India and Australia

Adam Collins

Who would have thought when India went two-zip up in this series last week that Australia would take it to a fifth and deciding set? This is the Indian outfit that have won 12 of their last 13 ODI series against Aaron Finch’s side who have a worse record on the road than the Washington Generals since the 2015 World Cup.

Yet here we at Delhi, Australia with their wind at their back after a quite magnificent victory on Sunday in Mohali where they mounted their highest successful run chase in any ODI – getting to 359 with 13 balls to spare, if you don’t mind – thanks to Ashton Turner’s coming-of-age classic. The 84 he clobbered off 43 balls at the business end will surely have him on the World Cup flight.

As for the hosts, this is their last ODI before they arrive in the UK for the tournament that matters most, the IPL next on their players’ agenda. It raises the stakes on this fixture for those yet to book their own berth, such as KL Rahul who was given the chance to bat ahead of Kohli on Sunday and didn’t capitalise.

Right, we have a lot to get through between now and the first ball in about 30 minutes from now, not least the toss and teams coming up shortly. Reports from training yesterday indicate that Marcus Stoinis might be fit and should, therefore, come back into the XI. But for whom? That’ll be interesting.

To open the batting on the music today, I give you Sports Team! They are a band that I found the other day (thanks, Spotify), who have a lot of titles referencing cricket. Indeed, their EP last year was called Winter Nets. I’m hooked. Enjoy.

source: theguardian.com