3rd ODI: Aus opt to bowl against India

NEW DELHI: Australian captain George Bailey won the toss and chose to bowl against India in the third one-day international at the PCA Stadium in Mohali on Saturday.

Scorecard

After winning the toss, Bailey said that that this ground, like Jaipur, will be hard to defend.

After losing the toss again, Dhoni said they would have bowled first as well, but he feels that it will be good exposure to bowl second with five matches still remaining. He emphasised on the rule changes (five fielders inside the ring) and the T20 factor helping massive scores being chased down.

Both India and Australia have retained their playing XI.

While Australia think about how to recover from the loss in Jaipur, India have troubles on the bowling front.

In the first one-dayer in Pune, India's bowlers leaked 304, while in the next game the Aussie batsmen managed to put up a total in excess of 350.

While India, on the back of Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, did chase down the massive target in Jaipur, the performance of the bowlers doesn't give Dhoni much confidence.

The pitch at the PCA Stadium is unlikely to be as much of a belter as the one in Jaipur. The pitch curator Daljit Singh has maintained that the game would see an even contest between bat and ball.

As for George Bailey and his bunch of committed warriors, the quicker they get over the disappointment of that defeat in Jaipur, better it will be.

Despite a heartbreaking loss, a positive aspect of this Australian team has been its batting which has fared well in all three matches.

Aaron Finch and Bailey have been in terrific form while Phil Hughes has been able to put behind his poor show in the Test series earlier this year with a lot of grit and application.

Shane Watson has also made his share of contribution with the bat and the talented Glenn Maxwell has x-factor to change things around quickly.

Teams:

India: MS Dhoni (Capt.), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Ishant Sharma.

Australia: George Bailey (Capt.), Aaron Finch, Phillip Hughes, Shane Watson, Glenn Maxwell, Adam Voges, Brad Haddin, James Faulkner, Mitchell Johnson, Clint McKay, Xavier Doherty.

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Shweta Pandey

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