Mohammad Shami’s brilliant bowling spell helped to restrict Australia to a chaseable target which India later on chased down and won the 1st ODI by 5 wickets.
Australia posted 276/10 in 50 overs which India chased down in 48.4 overs and scored 281/5.
After winning the toss KL Rahul opted to bowl first in the Mohali’s pitch.
Kangaroos lose their first wicket in the first over. Mitchell Marsh (4 runs) out cheaply. After that David Warner (52 runs) and Steven Smith (41 runs) batted sensibly and put 94 runs more for the 2nd wicket. Warner looks a little problematic in the starting but as he settles down he starts showing some great shots into the ground. He hits 6 fours and 2 sixes in his innings.
Some helpful innings were played by Marnus Labuschagne (39 runs), Cameron Green (31 runs), Josh Inglis (45 runs) and Marcus Stoinis (29 runs) in the middle of the overs but all of them were unable to convert their innings into a big one. In the end Pat Cummins (21 runs) showed huge destruction with his bat as he played only 9 balls and hit 2 fours and a six and guided his team to 276 runs in 50 overs but they lost all their wickets.
Mohammad Shami just showed his great experience and again proved a vital bowler in the death and the starting overs by taking 5 wickets in his spell. He gave 51 runs in his 10 overs and also got a maiden over. Jasprit Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja took 1 wicket each.
India was not looking in a hurry and they played superbly. The openers Shubman Gill (74 runs) and Ruturaj Gaikwad (71 runs) put 142 runs for the first wicket. Both of them laid a great foundation. Gaikwad hit 10 fours while Gill hit 6 fours and 2 sixes in their knocks. As the key players Rohit, Kohli and Hardik were not playing and the reason was shared by coach Dravid it became a huge role for the players to showcase their potential.
Suryakumar Yadav (50 runs) who was looking out of touch in the ODI finally getting his rhythm set in this format also. He hit 5 fours and a six in his innings. One of the most amazing factors was his straight drive which was not evenly seen in his batting. In the end, KL Rahul (58 runs) played a well balanced innings and a superb captain knock. He hit 4 fours and a six and finally with the six he took the game for his team and scored 281 runs with 8 balls to spare by losing 5 wickets.
Adam Zampa disturbed the batters in his initial overs and took 2 wickets but later on he missed some catches and initially his team lost the match. Pat Cummins and Sean Abbott took 1 wicket each.
Mohammad Shami, India, Player of the match
“It depends on the captain and the game situation, but despite the heat you feel like bowling 4-5 overs with the new ball (on bowling longer spells in heat). I enjoyed the wicket of Marsh, that’s a different feeling when you get the outside edge, when you control your swing nicely. It was important to hit the right lengths on this wicket, either at full pace or go slow, but bowling the right lengths were key. We have played together for a longer time, so we know what needs to be done. Always enjoy when we bowl well in tandem like this.”