India’s quest to reclaim the elusive World Cup trophy began with what looked like a comfortable win at the end by 6 wickets in MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai. Rohit Sharma marshaled his bowling troops on a spinning wicket, combined with some mindful field placements and bowling out the explosive Australian batting lineup to 199. The Australian pacers struck back in a similar fashion dismissing Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, and Shreyas Iyer with just 2 runs on the board.
India and Australia met for the fourth time in a matter of 3 weeks, with not much changing other than the setup. India’s decision to play three specialist spinners in comparison to Australia’s one in a Chepauk track which has traditionally favoured spinners, saw them dominating the middle overs while being extremely economical. Adam Zampa’s inconsistent lines and Glenn Maxwell’s ineffectiveness meant that Australia could not capitalize on their advantage after dismissing 3 of India’s Top 4 batters for a duck.
Australian skipper Pat Cummins became the first captain in this World Cup who elected to bat after winning the toss, maybe he was optimistic, or maybe he took a cue from their previous match against India where the heat bothered the batters and the skippers wanted to avoid exposing his bowlers to the same. Whatever may the reason be, the start Australia got did not justify the move, as Mitchell Marsh was dismissed for a duck, off his desperation to score by Jasprit Bumrah in the 3rd over.
Meanwhile, David Warner became the fastest to get to 1000 runs in the World Cup, taking just 19 innings in the process. A brief interval of sanity prevailed in the middle for Australia, as Steven Smith and Warner adopted a cautious approach keeping the scoreboard ticking in a steady manner while playing all their signature shots. Rohit Sharma was forced to bowl shorter spells of his pacers so as to safeguard from the perils of the heat.
The introduction of spin didn’t seem to bring instant impact until Warner hit one straight back to Kuldeep Yadav ending the 69-run stand. This gave India the opening, with the spin being bowled from both ends, combined with excellent field settings from Rohit Sharma tying down the scoring rate. Ravindra Jadeja was rewarded for his precision, as he clean bowled Steven Smith with a peach of a delivery that turned onto hitting the off-stump instead of going with the angle.
Jadeja picked a second, as Marnus Labuschagne was beaten by pace and extra bounce while trying to sweep the southpaw, only to be caught behind by KL Rahul. What followed was carnage, as Australia lost 4 wickets trying to score the next 20 runs as India’s spin-trio wreaked havoc in the Australian ranks, who did not read the pitch.
Australia found themselves at 140-7 in 36 overs and faced the prospect of being bowled out inside 40 overs. A few hits from Mitchell Starc and skipper Pat Cummins coupled with some luck took Australia towards 200, however, that was not to be as the Indian pacers performed the clean-up act, bowling out the Aussies for 199 in the 50th over. The innings saw a massive 173 dot balls, which was among the highest Australia has played in the recent past.
India’s pursuit of Australia’s target got off to the most disastrous starts possible, as the Australian pacers ran through the top order. India saw themselves at a score of 2-3, often confused for the scores of a football match. Rohit Sharma was caught in front of the wicket off Josh Hazlewood, whereas Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer threw their wickets away while playing irresponsible shots.
When KL Rahul joined Virat Kohli in the middle, the scorecard read duck, duck, two not out, and duck. It looked like India was given a taste of their own medicine by the Australian pacers, who were not giving away an inch. Virat and KL started cautiously, with Virat almost ending up getting caught trying to pull thankfully Mitchell Marsh spilled the chance.
The Australian pace trio extracted plenty of swing and seam movement in the opening overs, combined with the accuracy under the lights were enough to trouble the Indian batters in the powerplay. However, the small target ahead of the Indian batters meant that they need not take any risks and started playing sensibly, knocking singles and doubles all over the park.
Virat and KL stitched a partnership of 165 runs, steering India close to the target. Australia lacked a specialist spinner to share the bowl with Zampa, as the Indian duo negotiated Maxwell in the middle over with Zampa himself being slightly off with his lines. Virat Kohli fell short of a well-deserved ton, as he was dismissed on 85 hitting a delivery straight down the throat of Labuschagne at short Mid-wicket.
Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul, now in complete control of the game. upped the ante in an attempt to achieve a higher net run rate. KL Rahul was batting at 91, with India requiring 5 runs to win. Rahul’s attempt to get to his hundred was foiled when he overhit a delivery over covers for a six winning India the game while staying unbeaten at 97.
Our bowlers used the conditions perfectly and we knew there would be assistance for everyone, even the seamers got some reverse, the spinners bowled in the nice areas and all in all it was a great effort – Rohit Sharma
Indian captain Rohit Sharma sounded all cheerful during the post-match conference and complimented his bowling department for their discipline in line and lengths to use the conditions to their advantage. Sharma lauded the team’s fielding efforts that helped the team to build pressure on the Australian batters. He lamented on the performance of the top-order saying it was not the ideal start, but was happy that Virat Kohli and KL Rahul did the job.
” I was (nervous), you don’t want to start your innings like that, credit to the Aussies bowlers as they bowled in good areas but some loose shots as well, when you have that kind of target you want to score as much as possible in the powerplay, but credit to Virat and KL on how they went about the chase” said, Rohit Sharma.
India next play Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday.