Australia's left-arm seamer performs brilliantly with the bat, scoring 29-ball 64 as visitors beat India by four wickets in third ODI at PCA Stadium, Mohali
A sensational knock of 64 from 29 balls by James Faulkner towards the end of the innings helped Australia to a four-wicket win over India in the third ODI of the seven-match series at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium here Saturday.
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Australia’s James Faulkner slams one en route his match-winning unbeaten 29-ball 64 against India in the third ODI at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium Mohali on Saturday
India pacer Ishant Sharma will not forget Faulkner for quite a while as it his over (48th) which put the match in Australia’s pot as the latter hammered 30 runs (four sixes & one boundary) to hand the match to Australia.
The visitors chased India’s 304 with three balls to spare, taking a 2-1 lead in the series.u00a0Earlier, India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni scored a swashbuckling unbeaten 139 off 121 balls. The home side, reeling at 76/4 and then at 154/6, reached 303/9 because of Dhoni’s master class innings.
No one, apart from in-form batsman Virat Kohli (68) clicked in the top five. Thereon, it was an all Dhoni-show, who launched himself on the Australian bowlers towards the end of the Indian innings.
Dhoni played a breath-taking knock and in the process reached 5,000 runs as an ODI captain, the third Indian to do so after Mohammad Azharuddin and Sourav Ganguly. His innings included 12 boundaries and five huge sixes. He was also given good support by Ravichandran Ashwin, who chipped in with 28. Pacer Mitchell Johnson was the pick of the Australian bowlers, notching up four wickets from 10 overs.
In reply, Australia’s top order got starts but could not convert them into big ones as they regularly lost wickets. Skipper George Bailey (43) and Adam Voges (76 not out) however struck an important 83-run fourth wicket partnership to guide them towards their target.
Three quick wickets saw Australia reeling at 213/6. In came the 23-year-old Faulkner, who along with Voges put together an unbeaten partnership of 91 off 50 balls. Faulkner’s fantastic innings included six sixes, four of which came in Ishant Sharma’s over, and two boundaries.
Bhuvi Kumar (1/50) and Ravindra Jadeja (1/31) were the pick of the bowlers as they managed to keep the run rate down when needed.
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