The seventh and final one-dayer between India and Australia at the D Y Patil Stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to heavy unseasonal rains in the wake of a cyclonic storm over the Arabian Sea.
The wash-out of the the day-night encounter meant that Australia clinched the series with a 4-2 margin.
The two teams did not even have to come to the ground. It drizzled continuously since morning leaving the outfield soggy and increased its intensity two hours before the scheduled commencement of the clash.
Rains stopped for a brief while an hour and a half after the scheduled start and the ground authorities were pressed into service for mop-up operations. But even as the job was being done more rains fell.
Umpires Asoka De Silva of Sri Lanka and Amish Saheba of India held an inspection of the ground at 5 pm and decided to call off the match.
The match at this Navi Mumbai venue which was all set to host its first ODI was of only academic interest with Australia having taken an unassailable 4-2 lead in the seven-match series lead after winning the low-scoring sixth ODI at Guwahati on November 8.
Australia came back strongly from a 1-2 deficit and went on to win three consecutive matches (Mohali, Hyderabad and Guwahati) to pocket the series.
Final India-Australia ODI Washed Out
The seventh and final one-dayer between India and Australia at the D Y Patil Stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to heavy unseasonal rains in the wake of a cyclonic storm over the Arabian Sea.
The wash-out of the the day-night encounter meant that Australia clinched the series with a 4-2 margin.
The two teams did not even have to come to the ground. It drizzled continuously since morning leaving the outfield soggy and increased its intensity two hours before the scheduled commencement of the clash.
Rains stopped for a brief while an hour and a half after the scheduled start and the ground authorities were pressed into service for mop-up operations. But even as the job was being done more rains fell.
Umpires Asoka De Silva of Sri Lanka and Amish Saheba of India held an inspection of the ground at 5 pm and decided to call off the match.
The match at this Navi Mumbai venue which was all set to host its first ODI was of only academic interest with Australia having taken an unassailable 4-2 lead in the seven-match series lead after winning the low-scoring sixth ODI at Guwahati on November 8.
Australia came back strongly from a 1-2 deficit and went on to win three consecutive matches (Mohali, Hyderabad and Guwahati) to pocket the series.
Australia won the first ODI at Vadodara by four runs before India clinched the next two in Nagpur (by 99 runs) and New Delhi (by six wickets) only to see Australia come storming back to win the next three and seal the series triumph.
Australia, thus, maintained their superiority over India in bilateral ODI rubbers for nearly 20 years.
It was in 1986-87 that India beat the visiting Australians 3-2. In the two subsequent bilateral limited-over series between the two countries before the current one, Australia had defeated India 3-2 (best-of-five) in 2000-01 and 4-2 (best-of-seven) in 2007-08.
The visitors, who pocketed the current series 4-2 despite being ravaged by injuries to many of their key players, are set to leave for home early tomorrow morning.
Today's washout also dashed the home team's hopes of gaining a consolation victory and boosting their morale ahead of the full series of Tests, ODIs and Twenty20s coming up against Sri Lanka from November 16 in Ahmedabad.
There was little to enthuse about the Indian batting display in the series barring two brilliant centuries by skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (124 off 107 balls) in Nagpur and Sachin Tendulkar's 175, his second highest in ODIs, in the fifth match in Hyderabad.
While Dhoni's innings powered India to 354 for seven that Australia failed to chase successfully, Tendulkar's masterly knock brought the hosts to the brink of an amazing victory before they fell short by three runs while chasing the tourists' 350.
In the bowling department too, the Indians were largely inconsistent with Ashish Nehra being the most impressive among them.
For the visitors, the batsman who was consistency personified was vice-captain Michael Hussey who tallied 313 runs and averaging over 100 in the series and with a strike rate of 90-plus.
Shane Watson too showed his prowess with either bat or ball or with both barring the odd occasion to play a key role in the triumph while Ricky Ponting, true to his style, led from the front.
The visiting bowling attack, that has earned accolades from Ponting, missed the services of regulars Brett Lee and James Hopes who picked up injuries in the series opener at Vadodara and went back to Australia.
Peter Siddle led the attack with aplomb in the absence of Lee and the poor form of Mitchell Johnson before he too got injured and then it was rookie left-arm pacer Doug Bollinger who took up the lead role with alacrity to lead Australia to a six-wicket victory in the series-deciding match in Guwahati. PTI
