In less than a week, the ODI World Cup will begin, and Australia has already begun to sound alarm bells for the opposition. The squad played a three-match ODI series against the Men In Blue after arriving in India significantly earlier than other teams. Australia produced a fantastic effort in the third and final ODI in Rajkot, which was a dead rubber, after putting on a lacklustre display in the first two ODIs. In 50 overs, the squad scored an incredible 352/7, with their top four batsmen doing the majority of the damage. While Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne were stopped in their 70s, David Warner managed to earn 56 points off just 34 balls. He missed out on completing a well-deserved 100 by four runs, so Mitchell Marsh can call him unfortunate.
After three days, it is their bowlers, especially Mitchell Starc, who are running the show with their deadly bowling. The pacer destroyed the Netherlands top order in the warm-up game in Thiruvananthapuram, completing a hat trick.
In the opening over of the Netherlands run-chase, Starc got right to work, packing Max ODowd and Wesley Barresi in back-to-back deliveries. He struck out both batters with lethal inswingers, to which none batted back.
ODowd was caught LBW, and Barresi was out after being pitched outside the off-stump on a decent length ball that was angling in.
In his subsequent over, Starc continued the havoc by getting rid of Bas de Leede on the first ball to complete his hat trick. An inch-perfect yorker with a ball smashing the stumps outdid Leede.
That wasn't all, either, as Sean Abbott also struck Sybrand Engelbrecht with an unplayable delivery. Engelbrecht attempted to play over the line as the ball kissed the top of the off-stump, but Abbott also pitched it on length, defeating him.
The match, which was already cut short to 23 overs each side owing to rain, ended without a winner.
Australia scored 166/7 in 23 overs when batting first. After another rain delay, Netherlands reached 84/6 in 14.2 overs while batting, and the game was abandoned.
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