Pundits and fans criticised Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill for slowing down as they neared their respective centuries after a brisk start in the second ODI between India and Australia today (September 24) in Indore.
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India posted 399-5 against Australia. Twin tons from Gill (104 off 97) and Iyer (105 of 90), aided by a quickfire 52 off 38 from skipper KL Rahul, laid a perfect platform for Suryakumar Yadav to cash in. Yadav played a whirlwind knock, finishing unbeaten on 72 from 37 deliveries, catapulting his team’s score out of the tourists’ reach. The highlight of the knock was his four consecutive sixes off Cameron Green.
However, despite racking up the highest total in an ODI between the two teams, some were not happy with the way the Iyer-Gill duo batted cautiously while approaching their hundreds during their double-century partnership. Speaking on commentary, Sanjay Manjrekar suggested this was down to them being close to their milestones.
Harsha Bhogle on air said that both the batters slowed down probably because they were tired, and Manjrekar immediately jumped in and stated that they were close to their milestones.
He calls it as it is, and that's exactly why I enjoy his commentary.#INDvAUS— Shaan Waseem (@shaanwaseem2) September 24, 2023
One journalist, Gurkirat Singh Gill, laid out the numbers of the downshift in gears.
Hundreds for both the players, but I am not sure if these hundreds are worth celebrating. Gill was on 83 off 65 at 24.1, and Shreyas was 84 off 69. Shreyas only added 21 runs in his next 26 balls and Gill was even worse. 17 runs in 27 balls. Such kind of milestone batting should… https://t.co/cPS2kS2csz
— Gurkirat Singh Gill (@gurkiratsgill) September 24, 2023
Sandipan Banerjee, another writer, recalled a point raised by Simon Doull.
The same point was recently raised by the SKY commentary team in one of their pre-World Cup shows.
Simon Doull even went on to say that Indians play stats-driven Cricket. And it was quite evident today, wasn’t it? https://t.co/maC4mJTm3g
— Sandipan Banerjee (@im_sandipan) September 24, 2023
India scored 158 runs at a run-rate of 7.90 in the first 20 overs. They only got 58 runs in the next 10.5 overs, scoring at a rate of 5.5 per over, until the partnership was broken. Had Yadav and Rahul not played the rapid knocks, supported by a cameo of 31 (18) by Ishan Kishan, India might have fallen short of setting 400.
Still, any cautiousness didn’t matter much, with Australia falling to a big defeat in the rain-affected game.
