A rearguard century partnership between KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja helped India come out on top in a jittery run chase against Australia in the opening ODI in Mumbai on Friday (March 17). Rahul and Jadeja joined forces at a crucial stage with India losing five wickets in the low-scoring contest but the duo showcased excellent temperament to guide the hosts home with 61 balls to spare.
India were put under a lot of pressure very early in the chase. Defending just 188, Australia needed early wickets and the move to hand Marcus Stoinis the new ball worked. Ishan Kishan failed to negotiate the movement and was trapped lbw and the left-hander also wasted a review on his way back. Starc then bowled a testing spell in the powerplay that saw him silence the home crowd.
The left-arm seamer bowled two identical deliveries that swung back into the right hander to account for Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav off successive deliveries. While Rahul drove the hat-trick ball for a beautiful boundary, the Australian seamers continued to pose questions by consistently moving the ball. Starc was given an extra over with the new ball and the decision worked wonders for the visitors as Shubman Gill failed to keep a drive down, to get caught at point. At 39/4, India were under extreme pressure before Hardik Pandya and Rahul resurrected the chase.
Pandya hammered his first ball for a boundary and Rahul at the other end started to find the boundary as well. The stand-in captain then took on the short ball from Cameron Green to upper cut him for a six but when he attempted a pull against Stoinis, he got out by finding the fielder near the boundary. That brought out Jadeja to the middle as the …read more
Source:: The Island
