India are an exceptional side with Virat Kohli, Rohit in line-up: Finch

Bengaluru, January 20: Aaron Finch was disappointed as Australia could not win the series after taking a 1-0 lead with a win in the first ODI at Mumbai, but admitted that India under Virat Kohli are an exceptional side, and a hard one to beat.

After the defeat in Mumbai, India came back with wins at Rajkot and Bengaluru to bag the three-match series 2-1.

"They've got Virat who is probably the greatest ODI player of all-time, and Rohit who'd probably be in the top five batters of all-time. They're exceptional, and the thing with the Indian side at the moment is their experienced players are getting the job done in the big games. Rohit 100, especially without Shikhar there, for them to shuffle and their two most dominant players to still get majority of the runs is a sign of a really settled and really quality top order," Aussies skipper Finch.

Finch also said Australia were hampered by India's efficiency in the death overs - be it with bat or ball. At Rajkot, KL Rahul played a blistering 80 batting at No 5 while Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami stymied them with a series of yorkers. At Bengaluru, Shami and Bumrah once again proved efficient in the death overs, though Rahul moved up as opener in the absence of injured Shikhar Dhawan.

Finch wanted to emulate India in that part of the game. "I think probably guys not getting through to those last couple of overs. I think in the last two games we have had the bowlers batting for the majority of the last few overs. We saw in Rajkot the damage that KL could do in the back end because he was a settled batter. I think that's an area we just missed a couple of tricks.

"Just not having an in batter being in and having faced 20 or 30 balls to get us deeper and get us to the back end. But credit to India their death bowling in the last few games was exceptional. Shami was nailing his yorkers, Saini in the last two games and Bumrah. In both games they were exceptional. You can look at where we could have improved but also you've got to give some credit to India. They were unbelievable at the death," added Finch.