AUS vs IND: Hardik and Jadeja took the game away from us – Glenn Maxwell

Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell was very impressed with Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja’s clean-hitting abilities as the duo put on a match-winning 150-run stand for the sixth wicket in the final ODI of the three-match series at Canberra.

When asked whether the partnership between Hardik and Jadeja changed the course of the game, Maxwell replied: “Yes, certainly, I think, the way the wicket was probably behaving through out, we had them 5 for 150 and one wicket away from I suppose the bowling line-up, so we knew we were one wicket away.”

“But, unfortunately, the way they were able to play, they put pressure on, they (Hardik and Jadeja) accelerated and took the game away from us with some really clean hitting,” Maxwell said at the virtual post-match press conference.

Australia lost by a narrow margin of 13 runs and Maxwell, who played a superb knock of 59 off just 38 deliveries, believes that the run out of Alex Carey (38) turned the momentum of the match in visitors favour as well.

“…I thought probably the changing point was the run-out of Carey, which was probably 100 per cent my fault. “Unfortunately, when you sort of leave yourself with, we were six down at that stage, makes it little bit tougher, because you know one mistake, it can turn all-around pretty quickly, I think that (Carey run-out) was probably a key moment of the game,” he said.

Maxwell also praised the Indian bowlers for bowling so well at the death and heaped praise on ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah too. He said that Bumrah is ‘a class finisher’.

The 32-year-old had good things to say about the young leg-spinner Adam Zampa as well. Zampa finished the series with seven wickets to his name.

“He (Zampa) has been exceptional for the last few years and has figured himself as one of the best leg spinners in the world in ODI cricket. He just seems to get the job done day in and day out.

“He is accurate, he knows what he wants from his field, he knows what he wants from the game, just feel like he is reading the game really well. He sticks to his strengths and puts pressure on the batters. “We saw how well he bowled in England, he was right up there as one of the players of the series and he just seems to get better and better,” he said.