10.00pm And that is that. The series is 1-1, the third ODI is on Friday at the MCG. Hopefully, we'll have a finale to remember. Until then, from Alex, Thilak and me, good night!
Virat Kohli (he's also the Player of the Match, so one less interview to transcribe, yay): "We wanted to try and restrict them in the end. I thought they were going to get away from us when Maxy and Shaun were in. Getting them in two balls was brilliant. I thought 298 was par on that wicket, with the start they had. Bhuvi was outstanding to pull things back for us. Vijay Shankar is in the squad, he's an allrounder, so that gives us an option to play around with - but we'll see how we go. But backing five bowlers and seeing it come off is pleasing as a captain. You look for little moments to pump you up, get into the zone, and that's what I was trying to do. I tried to stay as aware as possible in recognising the moment to strike. I thought those 2-3 overs were the moment, to bring the gap between runs and balls down. When it comes off it looks good. It was a really tough day. My pants are white with the sweat, the salts coming out. MS was tired as well, fielding for 50 overs and batting as well, it was tough. So a good day to rest and travel and recover and regroup for the MCG. Tonight was an MS classic. He takes the game till the end, when only he knows what's going on in his mind, and he backs himself to hit those big shots at the end. And hats off to Dinesh too, he came in and took the pressure off him."
Aaron Finch: "When you come up like a batting side against India, you know you have to get wickets regularly, and we ran into that man Dhoni as well. Credit to India, they played well. We played well as well, it was a good game of cricket. What we've been working towards is some real solid performances through the middle overs. I'm responsible for the Powerplays, and I've not been coming off. It's a matter of time, I think. It's not easy when you're not getting runs, but captaincy is separate from personal performance, and you have to be consistent with your actions. Shaun Marsh's was a hell of an innings. He was pretty cooked by the end of it. To get 138 in brutal conditions this afternoon, with that heat, and for us to get 298, was pleasing, but in the end they managed to get past that. I think it would have been nice to have Jhye bowl right at the end. He's been our best bowler, and we tried to use him earlier to try and take wickets."
Poor Aussie: "And yet another Shaun Marsh Century ends in defeat" -- Four out of seven now.
Shravan: "Exactly 100 runs in boundaries and 199 runs in 1s , 2s and 3s. That's a tremendous amount of running by Indians" -- I'll trust your math on this one. Too tired to fact-check!
Brutus_Shylock: "Let's not forget dhawan's blistering start which helped India get to a good start. Brilliant cameo." -- Yup, and a good innings from Rohit Sharma too.
Samar: "I think we would not have won it without DK , he was the one who actually got us the needed boundaries in the end, Dhoni's job became a bit easier." -- When DK bats like this, you look at his ODI average and wonder why.
9.45pm And with that, it's 1-1. An enthralling game here at Adelaide Oval, with Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni bringing all their chasing superpowers into play to make the difference in the end. Also remember the last three overs of Australia's innings - four wickets, and only 17 runs, just when Shaun Marsh and Glenn Maxwell were looking like taking the score to 320 or thereabouts.
Seven to get off six balls. Can Jason Behrendorff defend this?
Akash : "How come they pick 3 with short boundaries and all fielders on boundaries as well." -- Adelaide is an unusual ground - long straight boundaries, and short square boundaries. They've regularised the dimensions somewhat, recently, but it still retains some of its original quirks.
