Australia drills past India in the first ODI

Australia have once again pegged back the Indians by registering a thumping win over the Men in Blue in the first one-day international of the Commonwealth Bank series, which also involves Srilanka. For the first time on their Australian tour, India were
deemed favourites to win against an inexperienced Aussie bowling attack which was without Brett Lee. Mitchell Starc and Clint McKay led the Aussie pace attack which was supported by Ryan Harris and the medium pace of all-rounder, Daniel Christian. Xavier Doherty
was the only spinner in the side, alongside the part time off-spin of David Hussey.

Indians, on the other hand, had a more balanced side on paper with the likes of Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin and Rahul Sharma guarding the Indian attack in the absence of Zaheer Khan. Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Suresh
Raina were also available for rolling their arms over had they been required to bowl.

With the overcast conditions certain to help the Indian quicks, Mahinder Singh Dhoni decided to field first after calling the right side of the coin. Vinay Kumar got the visitors off to a perfect start with the early scalps of David Warner and Ricky Ponting.
At 35-2 in 11 overs, both teams ran off the field due to heavy rain with India holding the edge. Eventually, when the players made their way back on the field, match was reduced to 32 overs aside, meaning that Australia had only 21 overs up their sleeve.

Debutant wicketkeeper, Matthew Wade, pounced upon his opportunity and turned the tide with a rapid fire 67 of 69 balls that included four boundaries and two sixes. David Hussey blasted his way to 61 not out of 30 balls including four boundaries and three
sixes to help Australia score 216/5 from their allotted 32 overs. Jadeja took some real beating after finishing with an economy rate of 15.37 per over. The left arm spinner conceded 41 runs in 2.4 overs.

Indians sent Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar as their two openers, but the experienced duo failed to stand tall against the pace of Starc. The left-arm pacer dismissed both the openers cheaply to leave India reeling at 13-2. Kohli and Sharma showed some
resistance but soon the pair fell within the space of two balls to leave India at 65-4. McKay got both the wickets. Later on, no Indian batsmen found life easy in front of the spirited Australian attack and were bundled out for 151 in 29.4 overs to lose the
first game by 65 runs.

Australia earned themselves five points with this commanding win and will next take on Srilanka on Friday, February 10, at Perth. Wade was declared Man of the Match on his ODI debut.

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Posted by Taha Habib on Feb 6 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry