Australia never saw their capitulation coming, especially after all the hard yards put in to negate the spin impact during their build-up to the ODI series opener in Chennai.
But by the end of Sunday evening, the visitors were torn by some supremely combative batting and a muddled batting approach in curtailed conditions against superior spin bowling. Chasing 164 in 21 overs demanded a more T20 approach but wickets up front saw Australia hurtle before crashing faceward down, handing the hosts a 26-run win.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah meted out the same treatment as Pat Cummins and Nathan Coulter-Nile did earlier when they started with the new ball earlier in the afternoon. Banking on strict lines and lengths, and some sharp lateral movement, both the new-ball bowlers of India stopped the openers from getting off to a quick start. Of the two, debutant Hilton Cartwright struggled more, often being made to play down opposite lines to the ball. Eventually, Bumrah put an end to his agony with a skiddy, length ball as Cartwright failed to connect on an attempted pull.
Hardik Pandya was in early and he almost effected the dismissal of the game by trapping skipper Steve Smith in front of the stumps. Having opted for the review, the hosts found out that it was an umpire’s call in the end. However, Pandya was smart to take the pace off his next ball as Smith miscued one off his top edge for Bumrah to take a splendid catch running backwards at short fine leg.
The wheels started coming off rather quickly following Smith’s return as Pandya struck in his next over to produce an edge of Travis Head.
There was a different battle within a bigger battle. Having struck back to back tons in the Bangladesh Tests, David Warner had improved his non-existent reputation in the subcontinent, only to be troubled by Kuldeep Yadav’s chinaman. After toying with him with a stock delivery and a wrong ‘un, Kuldeep pushed one with a scrambled seam to take Warner’s edge on the cut shot. MS Dhoni hardly erred as Australia slipped to 35 for 4.
Glenn Maxwell flexed his muscles through a blistering cameo, during which he smashed the man of the moment – Hardik Pandya – for two fours, before shredding Kuldeep’s bowling to pieces, taking him for a four and three sixes off consecutive balls. Yuzvendra Chahal was greeted with a six too, but off the next ball, the legspinner turned one far away from the massive reach of Maxwell as he mistimed a heave to long-on. Maxwell’s 18-ball 39 had only just begun to pull Australia back but Chahal’s strike helped India maintain the stranglehold.
Kohli’s pre-match press conferences were backed by good evidence as he continued to back youngsters on the field. Kuldeep, despite the 22-run over, was continued with as he brought the downfall of a struggling Marcus Stoinis, who swept one straight into the hands of substitute fielder, Ravindra Jadeja.
Chahal dropped two tough chances off his own bowling but removed Matthew Wade soon enough with a wrong ‘un to the advancing batsman. Cummins didn’t last long, failing to cash in on a dropped chance offered by Ajinkya Rahane at long-off, two overs back.
James Faulkner’s resilience towards the end hardly ruffled the hosts. The downward slope kept getting worse as India managed to keep the tourists to just 137 runs, to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match ODI series.
Earier in the day, “it is a no-brainer,” said the Indian skipper Virat Kohli at the toss, while electing to bat first. As the innings rolled along, it seemed Australia had racked their brains well enough to come up with a plan against India on flat tracks. Riding on sharp, tidy lengths, Australia’s new ball bowlers put the Indian batsmen under the pump.
Having reduced India to 11 for 3, Australia seemed to be in complete control but a stubborn Kedar Jadhav combined well with MS Dhoni to put on show India’s first signs of resilience. While the duo added 53 runs for the fourth wicket, the major damage had to come through in the form of a stellar stand between Pandya and Dhoni, both of whom took stock of the situation first before bludgeoning their way past fifties to give India a solid 281. However, rain had other plans as it ran the game close to the cut-off time without a single ball in Australia’s chase. Eventually, Australia were given 21 overs to chase 164, during which their batting let them down.
Brief Scores:
India 281/7 in 50 overs (Hardik Pandya 83, MS Dhoni 79; Nathan Coulter-Nile 3-44, Marcus Stoinis 2-54)
beat Australia 137/9 in 21 overs (Glenn Maxwell 39, James Faulkner 32*; Yuzvendra Chahal 3-30, Hardik Pandya 2-28, Kuldeep Yadav 2-33) by 26 runs (DLS method).
