The past few years have been tough for Kuldeep Yadav as the spinner has been in and out of the Indian cricket team. However, it left everyone stunned with a beauty of a delivery to sack Alex Carey at the third ODI meeting between India and Australia in Chennai on Wednesday. As the field assisted the spinners, Kuldeep threw the ball onto the leg stump and turned sharply to crash into Carey’s stump. The batsman was completely confused by the movement of the ball and even Australian skipper Steve Smith had to watch the replay to believe it.
Bamboozled 💥
An epic delivery of @imkuldeep18 to get Alex Carey out!
Australia 7⃣ down now.
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Tight bowling spells by Kuldeep Yadav and Hardik Pandya helped India join Australia for 269 in 49 overs in the third and final match of the three-match ODI series at Chennai.
Mitchell Marsh scored highest for Australia with 47, taking them from as many deliveries. Alex Carey played a 38-point knockout. For India, Pandya and Kuldeep Yadav took three wickets each while Axar Patel and Mohammed Siraj scalped two wickets respectively.
Australia opted to bat first and got off to a flying start as their openers Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head had the Indian bowlers toil hard to cheer up the excellent batting conditions.
The Aussie openers hit a flurry of sixes and fours against Indian pacers. The batting pair of Marsh and Head were decisive in their approach. The Aussie batters turned the bat, preventing the Indian bowlers from unwinding as they whacked the loose balls on offer.
However, their dominance did not last long as Hardik Pandya gave India a big wicket from Head. He returned after scoring 33 runs from 31 deliveries.
Australian captain Steve Smith came to bat, but could not hold out against the attack from the Indian pacer for long as he also fell prey to Pandya.
Lefthanded veteran batter David Warner then came to bat. In the 15th over of the match, Pandya struck again to give India a big break as he removed the well set Mitchell Marsh.
After scalping three wickets, Team India bowed a tight line and controlled the flow of runs. An over by Hardik Pandya cost two runs, while Ravindra Jadeja conceded just three runs in the 18th over of the match.
Kuldeep Yadav then joined the wicket taking side as he dismissed Warner for 23. It was not long before Australia lost their fifth wicket as Labuschagne returned after scoring 28 runs.
Marcus Stoinis then came to bat. Stoinis opened his hands and collected 12 runs in Kuldeep’s over. Alex Carey and Stoinis’ Aussie hit hit Axar Patel for 13 runs as he stole hits at regular intervals.
In the 37th over of the match, Patel removed Stoinis for 25. Kuldeep delivered an absolute ripper to bowl out set batsman Carey for 38 and delivered a wicket maiden over.
Trailing by seven wickets, Ashton Agar and Sean Abbott dealt with Australia’s attack and the pair continued to stack runs as they stole singles.
In the 45th over of the innings, Abbott Patel hit for two sixes before losing his wicket to the Indian bowler on the final delivery of the over. Abbott returned to the pavilion after scoring 26 points.
Mitchell Starc then came to bat. In the 46th over of the innings, Axar delivered a stunning delivery to remove Agar for 17 runs.
Siraj ended Australia’s innings when he claimed Starc’s wicket for 10, helping India to knock out Australia for 269.
(with ANI inputs)
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