Australia’s start to India’s tour was a resounding one, they not only won the First One Day International at Wankhede but showed they are on road of building a strong team which have the capability to win in all conditions
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| Finch and Warner made brilliant centuries in record stand |
340 Odis at home soil in 39 years and the worst defeat,thats sums up India’s performance at Wankhede on Tuesday,It seemed that Kohli’s side barring Captain just didn’t turned up mentally for the contest. On the other hand Australia once they found their way in the contest didn’t gave India an inch. This is just the second time India has suffered a defeat by 10 wickets on their home turf. Only South Africa is the other team which has the privilege of defeating India in India by margin of 10 wickets. However no team has chased the target of 250 or above without losing the wicket against India . Such was the dominance of Australia over India in First ODI that it left many fans shell shocked, while some termed it as an utter humiliation.
As Australia won the toss they decided to field first.After Rohit was out early of Starc, Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul steadied the ship, there partnership gave India a solid platform but they couldn’t dominate the bowling as run rate kept hovering around 4.5 to 5 , however at 134-1 , it seemed a platform was laid for the stroke makers but a mini middle order collapse which included crucial wicket of the captain, who instead of batting in his position batted at no.3 to accommodate all three Rohit, Rahul and Dhawan meant that Australia were able to restrict India to 255, a total experts considered as below par total ,however there still some hopes from fan that India who were with five specialist bowlers will be able to make scoring difficult .
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| David Warner hit his 18th ODI Century |
However all those hopes were dashed when David Warner and Aron Finch gave Australia a flying start, neither the pacers nor the spinners were able to stop them , they drove,cut and played shots down the ground easily and once they were comfortable the fours and sixes started raining.It almost seemed a race between Warner and Finch to race for fifties and then later on for hundreds. While Finch was more aggressive earlier,Warner once when got going it was hard to stop him , he was specially ruthless on Ravindra Jadeja. Jadeja’s performance today might raise question on his white ball career in future, While he is only 31 and can play till 2023 world cup which is 3 years away but his bowling seems to have lost the spark in limited overs . After Warner strolled to hundred it was Finch’s turn to make a sparkling hundred which ensured that Australia continued their impressive work by a massive 10 wicket win with 74 balls to spare.
While it would be early to comment anything about India and Australia contest as on times the teams have bounced back just like last time Australia won the series by 3-2 after losing first two games.There are no two thoughts that India need to step up while Australia seem to have overcome the wretched year which started from New lands. The series might not be having too much relevance in the year when T-20 World Cup will be played but India- Australia contest are of such high voltage that every game played between these two quality sides has every inch of significance.
The next ODI at Rajkot is expected to be played on a batting belter and the side which might stop other from scoring will triumph in the end . In the hindsight its not batting but the test of bowlers of both the sides ,how can they survive on the pitches which will offer nothing to them.
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