@Cooper Connolly playing a shot during his innings of 61 runs vs India at Adelaide 2025
Match Overview:
The second One-Day International (ODI) between India national cricket team and Australia national cricket team on 23 October 2025, at the old Adelaide Oval, became a tensed and exciting match. Australia came out the winner by 2 wickets and with 22 balls remaining thus clinching the three match series with an insurmountable lead of 2-0.
It was a fine margin match: India had a competitive inning, though Australia had the feeling of calmness with the pressure in their pursuit. The match unfolded in the following manner, performance of the players, turning point and the outcome of the result to both the sides.
India Innings: Setting the stage
India was able to win the toss and chose to bat. The batting side had a total of 264/9 in 50 overs.
Key contributions included:
- Rohit Sharma started off the innings well with a good 73 on 97 balls to give India a good starting point.
- Shreyas Iyer contributed to India through a good 61 (77 balls), which propelled it out of the troublesome stages.
- There were also some useful runs by Axar Patel who kept the momentum going in the middle order.
- The bowlers of India did not do a bad job with the ball (and this is explained in the bowling section below), but in the end the total of 264 was barely defensible considering the pitch was and how the Australians were handling the chase.
- On the part of the host, this sum was competitive and, maybe, not as flashy as can be expected in Australian conditions when on the defensive. India maintained themselves in the match but there was a feeling that they could have had an opportunity to push on further to 280s or even beyond.
Chase: Calculated and Confident in Australia
- Australia with 265 in pursuit, made some minor alterations and appeared at ease. The secret was in judicious collaborations and performance:
- Matthew Short scored the highest in Australia (74 off 78 balls) being the foundation over the pursuit.
- Young left-hander Cooper Connolly went 61 without losing, leading the last overs and winning the game.
- Mitchell Owen took on fireworks at an opportune time, to increase the pace of the hunt and relieve the strain when the necessary run-rate threatened to increase.
- The victory was made through 46.2 overs (i.e. 3.4 to spare) and with 22 balls remaining.
- The strategy of Australia was cautious and offensive: they did not give India free reign even though it scored a few early wickets, and when the big alliance was established they punched it home.
Key Bowling and Fielding Moments:
For India:
- Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana took 2 wickets each, demonstrating the hint of pressure building.
- Nevertheless, the expensive mistakes included: one of the missed catches of Short, marked Short, Siraj is credited with, was pointed out as a decisive point.
- Another weakness that was noticed was that the pace attack by India appeared to be tired and got cramped in later overs by which time it was not needed.
- In the case of Australia, the fielding, bowling unit and batting were united. Although the game did not swing dramatically due to the spectacular bowling, Australia was good enough to ensure that India did not get the initiative.
Turning points and Pressure moments:
- India failed to push the matter further: 264 was a good score, but India failed in the top-order to really drive India to its knees during the last 10 overs.
- The Middle Overs Escape of Australia: At around 132/4, India had a window when the Australia were around.But the Short-Connolly alliance changed the bill.
- Dropped Catch of Short: in his early inning Short was dropped by Siraj at backward point a chance that India would be happy to take. That reprieve proved costly.
- Run-scoring Acceleration: The game tilted between approximately with the 35th and 40th over mark. Mitchell Owen assault and the maturity of Connolly brought about the ability of Australia to begin running ahead of the asking rate.
- India's Physical problems: The cramps/specialist-bowler fatigue in India had seen the country fail to maintain pressure during the death overs.
All these events served to highlight the domination of Australia at the key stages and the failure of India to convert the momentum into domination.
Significance of the Result:
- For Australia: It was not only the series, 2-0, but showed richness and calmness in the side, which is significant before the bigger events. They demonstrated that they had substitutes on hand even when wickets were lost and youngsters such as Connolly are capable of performing on the pressure.
- For India: The two consecutive losses in the series of the ODIs must serve as a wake-up call. Bowling and fielding teams did not do well on the right time, despite having a decent batting. In addition, the physical readiness and profundity of expert bowlers will now be put into question.
- Venue observation: India has recently largely lost at Adelaide and this defeat is the end of the streak.
What Next?
- The third ODI will mean India will be seeking to redeem itself. They will have to deal with bowling fatigue, fielding lapses and taking the initiative sooner.
- The series in its possession means that now Australia can either seek a clean sweep or utilize the remaining match to experiment with combination depth.
- To the fans and analysts, this game will be subjected to lessons; how sub-continental teams defend totals in Australian conditions and how Australia deal with chases in pressure situations.
Final Thoughts:
Although it was a 2-wicket margin giving the impression that it was a nail-biter, the story of the match is that Australia was in control following that decisive partnership of the middle-overs. India might look backwards at the slips they made, the opportunities that were missed, the inability to push the extra 15-20 runs up, which are usually the difference in the highest game.
Overall, it was a feast of ODI baseball: professional hitting and unstable luck, accumulation of tension with ups and downs, and a climax that provided tension. To Australia it is a statement win; to India a lost chance - and a wake-up call.
Brief scores: India 264/9 in 50 over (Rohit Sharma 73, Shreyas Iyer 61; Adam Zampa 4-60, Xavier Bartlett 3-39) lost to Australia 264/8 in 46.2 over (Matt Short 73, Cooper Connolly 61; Arshdeep Singh 2-41) by 2 wickets.