- Sunday, May 19, 2024
India bowlers bowl3e the former champions below 200 in 49.3 overs after Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to bat.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA beat threatening challenges early in their chase of a target of 200 to beat five-time champions Australia by six wickets in their first match of ICC World Cup 2023 at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai in the southern state of Tamil Nadu on Sunday (8).
The hosts were reduced to 2 for the loss of three wickets with openers Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan, who was playing in the place of an unwell Shubman Gill, and Shreyas Iyer getting out for nought. But former captain Virat Kohli (85) and KL Rahul (97 not out) brought the chase back on track by adding 165 runs for the fourth wicket. After Kohli got dismissed, Hardik Pandya (11 not out) added the required runs with Rahul to take India home in 41.2 overs.
Rahul was adjudged the man of the match.
For Australia, pacers Josh Hazlewood took three wickets for 38 runs and Mitchell Starc the remaining one for 31 runs.
Earlier, India bowlers, led by their spinners, did well to restrict Australia below 200 runs.
The five-time champions, who chose to bat after winning the toss, failed to capitalise on a strong launching pad they got at 110 for 2 in 27 overs and were all out for 199 in the final over. Ravindra Jadeja led the India bowlers with three wickets for 28, including that of Steve Smith, Australia’s highest scorer at 46 off 71 balls, in 10 overs.
Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav took two for 42 in his 10 and his prized scalps included opener David Warner, who made 41 off 52.
Ravichandran Ashwin, who made it to the Indian squad in the last minute replacing an injured Axar Patel, picked one wicket as well.
India’s seamers Jasprit Bumrah claimed two wickets for 35 runs while Mohammed Siraj, who recently single-handedly decimated Sri Lanka in the final of the Asia Cup, and Hardik Pandya took one each.
Australia lost Mitchell Marsh early who was brilliantly caught by Virat Kohli in the slips off the bowling of Bumrah, resurrected the innings with a 74-run partnership between Warner and Smith but dismissal of the two batters within a gap of 36 runs hurt Australia’s scoring pace and they struggled to score against a disciplined bowling attack and kept losing wickets regularly.
