Australian skipper Pat Cummins shed light on the number of runs they were short in campaign starter in the ICC World Cup 2023 against India at MA Chidambaram Stadium. Pat Cummins led side bowled out just 199 on the tough surface of Chennai, and India won the match with six wickets.
A handy inning by Mitchell Starc at the end helped Australia reach that much score, but Pat Cummins expressed that they remained 50 runs behind, and it was really tough to defend that small total against India.
On the bowling wicket at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Australian skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and elected the ball first, which was a surprising decision. Marsh went early without opening his account. Steven Smith and David Warner helped with a good partnership; both looked positive, but Warner threw his wicket to Kuldeep Yadav.
A little partnership developed between Steven Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, but Smith got a stunning ball from Jadeja that crashed into his stumps. Australia kept losing their wickets and only managed 199 on the scoreboard.
In the chase, India’s had a very dramatic start as the Australian bowlers showed their brilliance and sent three Indian batters to zero. At the score of 12, Australia gave a chance to Virat Kohli as he was dropped by Marsh, and the match turned totally because Kl Rahul and Virat Kohli shared a partnership of 165 to win it for India.
We have to review the performance- Pat Cummins
During the post-match presentation, Pat Cummins acknowledged the fact that defending 200 was never going to be an easy task. Pat Cummins was asked about the dropped catch and said that it happens all the time and heaped praise on the Josh Hazlewood and said that he was fantastic.
“At least 50-odd (short with the bat). It was tough trying to defend anything under 200. It was a really good bowling attack, and their spinners made it tough work out there. We have to review this one; it is absolutely tough, but what if we are up against it? Then how would we do differently? Just one game out of nine—not too much to ponder about, but there are some areas we need to get better at,” said Pat Cummins.
“I have already forgotten about the drop catch; it happens all the time. 4/10 would have been a dream start for us. Hazlewood is a class bowler and poses a lot of questions. He stays in that area and was fantastic today,” he said.