Former Indian national cricket team captain Kris Srikanth has praised 23-year-old pacer Harshit Rana after his heroics against the Australian national cricket team in the Sydney ODI.
Kris Srikanth, who was one of the experts who harshly criticized Harshit Rana’s selection, said that his bowling in the third ODI against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground deserved universal praise.
India beat Australia by 236 in Sydney thanks to Harshit Rana
Australia won the toss again in this series and elected to bat first in the match. Australia got off to a good start with explosive opener Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head, who together added 61 runs before Mohamed Siraj batted back left-handed.
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After that, India continued to take wickets at regular intervals and did not allow the Australians to form big partnerships that could have led to big scores.
Axar Patel took the second wicket by dismissing Mitchell Marsh for 41 and Washington Sundar sent back Matthew Short for 30 to take the third wicket.
Star wicketkeeper-batsman Alex Carey was then scratched and dropped 24 runs, while Matt Renshaw, who scored 56 runs, was unable to convert his start into a big score and Australia were reduced to 195/5.
From there, India maintained their dominance and soon overwhelmed the Australians, scoring 236 runs in 46.4 overs. Harshit Rana took four wickets and was India’s top performer, while Washington Sundar took two. The remaining bowlers – Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel – took one wicket each.
Australia’s worst collapse from over 180 for 3 in ODI cricket:
24/7 (202/3 to 226) vs WI Melbourne 1989
26/7 (232/3 to 258) vs India Mumbai WS 1996
47/7 (190/3 to 237) vs Pac Melbourne 2005
53/7 (183/3 to 236) vs Sidney, Indiana 2025
Therefore, Harshit Rana today deserves all the praise. I’m very happy – Kris Srikanth
Kris Srikanth took personal feelings when he attacked Harshit Rana in an earlier flop show, accusing him of being selected for India because he was Gautam Gambhir’s yes-man.
But Kris Srikanth sacrificed his own words and praised the youngster’s incredible magic during Harshit Rana’s emphatic victory over Australia.
“Harshit Rana deserves all the praise today. I am very happy for you. Yes, I criticized you a lot but at the end of the day you did very well. He regained confidence from his last match after scoring with the bat and his first spell with the ball,” he said on his official YouTube channel
“The more he performs like this, his confidence will continue to grow. He looked like a very confident bowler today.
Taking four wickets in an ODI is a big achievement – Kris Srikanth
Kris Srikanth added that Rana’s bowling was excellent and Mitchell Owen’s dismissal was his favorite. He explained:
“Harshit Rana bowled great. Taking four wickets in an ODI is a big achievement. My favorite was Owen’s wicket. It was a great delivery and Rohit took a great catch.”
“He bowled great lines and length. He was wrecked at the death in the last match, but in this match he bowled very well at the death. He didn’t bowl short today, he didn’t bowl too slow.”
Also read: Virat Kohli’s coach bows to Rohit Sharma after Sydney ODI heroics