AUS v/s IND: Hitman's knock goes in vain as India suffer 34-run defeat

Guwahati, January 12, 2019:

The first One Day International (ODI) of the three match series between India and Australia just came to a tame finish today as India were handed a 34 runs defeat at the Sydney Cricket ground. With this, Australia secured their 1,000th win in ODI cricket.

The Indian team had recently retained the Border-Gavaskar test trophy in Australia’s backyard.

The ODI series has a lot riding on it as the Australian team is looking for redemption after the test series loss as India started with their first white ball match to build some momentum before the upcoming World Cup in England and Wales.

The Australian captain Aaron Finch won the toss and elected to bat first. The Aussies were able to put up a competitive score of 288 for the loss of 5 wickets, with valuable contributions from Usman Khawaja (59), Shaun Marsh (54), Peter Handscomb (73) and Marcus Stoinis (47). For India, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kuldeep Yadav scalped two wickets each.

The Indian innings got off to a rocky start and they lost opener Shikhar Dhawan, skipper Kohli and Ambati Rayudu with only four runs on the scoreboard. But Mahendra Singh Dhoni (51) and Rohit Sharma (133) steadied the ship, with the duo adding 137 runs for the fourth wicket. The Hitman notched up his 7th ton against the yellow brigade in 30 ODI matches. But Dhoni’s departure opened the gates to the wickets again, with Dinesh Karthik (12) and Ravindra Jadeja (8) failing to impress.

However, the required run rate climbing and all responsibilities mounting on the ‘Indian opener led to Rohit Sharma holding out in the deep after he had brought up his 22th ODI ton which eventually ended India’s hope to win the first ODI.

The Indian innings was wrapped up at 254/9. Jhye Richardson (4/26) was the pick of the bowlers for the hosts.