Battling initial hiccups and some tricky phases, India kickstarted their World Cup campaign against Australia with a seven-wicket win at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday (October 8) evening. While bowlers were the architects of the win, it was the pair of KL Rahul (97*) and Virat Kohli (85) that took India to the victory shores when the second innings performance looked like a repeat of the 2019 WC semifinal.
India were in a spot of bother as both openers Rohit Sharma, and Ishan Kishan as well as designated no.4 Shreyas Iyer departed within the first two overs, with only two runs on board. Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood made merry with the new swinging ball as Indian batters rushed through and paid the ultimate price for it.
With the ship tottering, Kohli and Rahul stepped up and started rotating the strike to develop a partnership. Kohli had a lucky reprieve when he was on 12 as Mitchell Marsh could not hold onto a tough chance while running in from short mid-on. In hindsight, it might have been the turning point of the match.
In the first powerplay, India only managed 27 runs but kicked on from there. Cameron Green introduced in the 15th over was picked apart for consecutive boundaries before KL Rahul took the initiative and smashed Adam Zampa for three boundaries in his first over.
From thereon, both batters played a near chanceless innings, as the Aussie bowlers toiled hard but to no avail. Rahul and Kohli etched their half-centuries and kept up with the required run rate.
Kohli, however, would have been disappointed as he could not see the game through after he departed on 85 whilst attempting a pull straight to Labuschagne at short midwicket.
Australia’s sorry batting performance
Opting to bat first, Australia had a wretched start to the proceedings as Marsh departed for nought. Jasprit Bumrah even the scales after being taken for plenty by the all-rounder in the ODI series last month.
Afterwards, Warner and Smith stitched a partnership and handled things sensibly with the latter looking set for another big one against India - his favourite opposition.
However, Kuldeep Yadav 2.0 with his slightly remodelled action, picked Warner’s wicket and brought the much-needed breakthrough for India. This was the window that Indian spinners needed and the troika of Jadeja, Ashwin and Kuldeep didn’t let things slide from there.
Jadeja bowled a beauty to get Smith and the wheels came off for Australia after that. From 110/2, the five-time World champions slipped to 140/7. Things were looking bleak for the Aussies at that stage with over 13 overs still left, but the lower-order hung around to push the score to a below-par 199.
Source: WION
--Agencies
