13:39 Unchanged India elect to bowl vs Australia:
Mohammed Shami opens the bowling for India. The first ball is on the pads as Aaron Finch is hit on the pads and he manages to pick a leg bye to get Australia off the mark.
The next ball beats Usman Khawaja as it moves away enough to go past the edge. But the third ball is on the pads as Khawaja flicks it through square leg for a four to get off the mark in some style.
Shami bowls another wide before Khawaja plays out the rest of the opening over, which goes for six runs.
Jasprit Bumrah to bowl from the other end. He drops slightly short and wide as Finch punches it through the covers for a four and two balls later slashes another wide delivery uppishly past point for another boundary.
Bumrah then beats Finch with a sharp incoming delivery striking him on the pads but the confident shout for LBW is turned down. India decide to take the DRS but the ball is going over the stumps and India end up losing their only review very early in the innings.
13:10 Unchanged India elect to bowl vs Australia:
India captain Virat Kohli has won the toss and elected to bowl in the third One-Day International in Ranchi.
India, who have taken a 2-0 lead, have retained the same playing eleven.
Interestingly, the Indian team are sporting camouflage caps as a tribute to the martyrs of the Pulwana terror attack, says Virat Kohli.
Australia have made one change as Jhye Richardson replaces Nathan Coulter-Nile, who has gone back for the birth of his child.
13:01 Ranchi awaits a fairytale Dhoni swansong:
Welcome to the coverage of the third One-Day International between India and Australia in Ranchi on Friday.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s final homecoming forms a poignant subplot of an utterly dominant Indian team’s quest for an unassailable 3-0 lead in the third ODI against Australia, in Ranchi, on Friday.
A 3-0 lead in the five-match series will be a perfect parting gift for Ranchi’s favourite son, who, in all likelihood, will be seen wearing the India Blues for the last time at his home ground.
There has been a sense of dją vu every time Dhoni has stepped on to the field in the ongoing series.
It reminded many of Tendulkar’s penultimate Test series against Australia in 2013, when the cheer from the stands would amplify with each passing match.
Something similar has been happening at every ground in this series, with the fans possibly beginning to realise that the legend may not be around when India next play at home.
Amidst the emotional side story, the Indian team is grappling with a few teething issues regarding its top-order batting, especially senior opener Shikhar Dhawan’s poor form, which has affected India’s starts of late.
Despite Dhawan having gone off the boil with only two half-centuries in the last 15 ODIs, India are unlikely to tinker with the winning combination of the first two encounters.
KL Rahul, who is back in form, may have to wait till India clinch the series, but the team management could well try him out at the No. 3 position.
The two victories — by six wickets and eight runs — weren’t exactly convincing but pulling off close matches under pressure will certainly add to the confidence.
The bowling has been superb in both games with Australia failing to reach 250 but save Virat Kohli, who stamped his class with another hundred on a slow Jamtha track, none of the other batsmen have looked the part so far.
Vice-captain Rohit Sharma, the second most consistent player in this line-up, looked good in the first game before he got out.
Kedar Jadhav and Dhoni shepherded India in the first match and didn’t trouble the scorers in the next.
Ambati Rayudu, whose only significant knock was the 90 against New Zealand in the last away series, has also been inconsistent and can be replaced with Rahul.
Rayudu, who has retired from first-class cricket, has found it difficult and his primary problem has been not being able to rotate the strike.
If Dhawan is persisted with, the best way to give Rahul at least three games is to bring him at No. 3 and the skipper coming at No 4 in place of Rayudu.
There are no such worries about Indian bowling as they have performed as a unit. The biggest gain in the second game has been Kedar Jadhav and Vijay Shankar performing their combined role of a fifth bowler to perfection.
Shankar’s two wickets while bowling the final over will also instil confidence in his captain that in case Hardik Pandya has a breakdown, he has a fallback option in the Tamil Nadu all-rounder.
Source: Rediff