Aussies wash out in opener
CAPTAIN Steve Smith has no intention of panicking after Australia lost the first one day-international to India in a rainshortened match.
While the visitors went down after a lengthy delay on Sunday, Smith is not reading too much into the result, having collapsed chasing a revised target 164 off 21 overs.
“You don’t really have a great deal of time to make things up when you need eight an over basically from ball one,” he said.
Australia slumped to 4-35 in the eighth over when David Warner nicked Kaldeep Yadav through to M.S. Dhoni.
Glenn Maxwell tried to launch a rearguard action, but his 39 off 18 balls was not enough to save his side from going one-nil down in the fivematch series.
Maxwell was caught in the deep off Yuzvendra Chahal (3-30) looking to clear the boundary for a sixth time before Marcus Stoinis (three) departed three balls later.
From 6-76, the mountain was too steep to climb and Australia finished 27 runs short at 9-137.
It was a cruel loss given the match was minutes from being abandoned.
Rain started falling after India fought back to post 7-281 off its 50 overs after the Australian bowlers dominated early.
Injury-plagued paceman Nathan Coulter-Nile (3-44) made a dream start to his first international match since June last year with a sensational opening spell. The 29-yearold’s outswing yielded three wickets in 13 balls, including the prized scalp of India captain Virat Kohli, who was out for a duck to a sensational onehanded catch from Maxwell.
But with India reeling at 5-87 after Stoinis chimed in with two wickets, Dhoni (79 off 88) steadied the ship.
“M.S. then finished it off like he does,” Kohli said.
Dhoni combined with Hardik Pandya for a vital 118-run partnership. “In the end it proved to be a match-winning partnership,” Smith said.
Pandya looked to be on his way to a century, but he topedged a slog sweep to third man for his 83 off 66 balls.
Later, he took the crucial wickets of Smith and Travis Head to finish with 2-28 in a man-of-the-match performance. The series now moves to Kolkata on Thursday.