Cooper Connolly literally sings Australia to ODI victory over India with unbeaten 61Steve LarkinAAPFri, 24 October 2025 7:05AMCommentsComments
Cooper Connolly was, literally, on song as Australian cricket took a triumphant sneak peek at its white-ball future.
The 22-year-old sang between facing balls when guiding his country to a two-wicket ODI win over India on Thursday night.
Connolly was one of four L-platers to drive Australia to an unassailable 2-0 lead in the best-of-three series concluding in Sydney on Saturday.
Chasing 265 to win at Adelaide Oval, he struck an unbeaten 61 from 53 balls.
“I like to sing a song to myself,” Connolly said.
“And I started singing between every ball, just to relax myself … the Indian team is a world-class team and you’re just trying to enjoy it and embrace the challenge in front of me.
What song?
“Whatever was playing.”
Connolly’s feat came in just his fourth ODI innings.
The left-hander combined with 24-year-old Mitch Owen, who made 36 from 23 balls in his maiden ODI knock, for a match-winning 59-run partnership.
They both posted career-high ODI scores, as did Matt Short (74 from 78 balls) in his 15th ODI innings.
The triple treats followed paceman Xavier Bartlett, in his fifth ODI, snaring 3-39 from 10 overs.
Bartlett’s victims included Indian captain Shubman Gill and the legendary Virat Kohli, who made consecutive ducks for the first time in his 18-year ODI career, in a five-ball span.
The 26-year-old quick Bartlett now has wicket hauls of four, four, two, two and three in his five ODIs.
“We have got a lot of depth in Australian cricket and that was shown tonight,” Connolly said post-game.
“With Smudge (Steve Smith) and Maxi (Glenn Maxwell) retiring from one-day cricket earlier in the year, there was obviously some room for some younger guys to come through.
“It was nice for me, Shorty, Mitch, X (Bartlett), to put our hands up and, I guess, almost feel like we’re welcome to this stage and being able to play some good cricket.”
Connolly has played more times for Australia – one Test, seven ODIs, six T20s – than first-class matches (eight).
“Being around the group has been world-class for me,” he said.
“Learning of some of the best players – Travis Head, Mitch Marsh – taking in how they go about it and taking small things out of their gaming and putting it into my game and seeing what works for me.
“Over the last sort of 12 months, being around the Australian set-up has been very important to me.
“I’ve learned a lot over that period of time and I’m just looking forward to learning more; I’m only 22 so there’s a lot more learnings for me along the way.”
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