CWC2023: Kohli , Rahul stars in India's hard earned win vs Australia

 

India starts off with a 6 wicket win over Australia in a low scoring match at Chennai  in the ODI World cup. Both teams played their first match today . Batting first Australia put up a below par performance to get 199 all out in 49.3 overs and India after cheap early loss of 3  wickets settled down to overhaul the target to win by 6 wickets . 

Before the toss,  Ravi Shastri on giving the pitch report  said that the pitch will be slower as the game progresses.  As a result, it will be more difficult to play later.  Spinners will play a big role in this pitch.  Rohit Sharma lost the toss on that pitch.  Australian captain Pat Cummins decided to bat  but Australia did not start well.  Jaspreet Bumrah dismissed Mitchell Marsh for zero runs.  Virat took a good catch at slip.

 Warner and Smith forged a partnership for the second wicket  .  Although the run rate was low, wickets were not falling.  They were playing slowly.  Rohit gave the ball to the spinners as the pacers did not get wickets anymore.  After that the scoring rate fell.  Kuldeep dismissed Warner caught and bowled for  41 runs.  Smith and Labuschenne crossed the team's 100 runs.  Smith looked good.  He was approaching fifty.  Right then, Ravindra Jadeja gave Australia a big blow.  Smith was bowled after the ball spun away to hit off stump from  Jadeja after making a solid 46 runs.  

 Jadeja dismissed Labuschagne and Alex Catey in one over. Labuschagne (27) tried to sweep and Carey was lbw for 0 . Australia lost 5 wickets for 119 runs.  It looked like scoring 150 would be difficult. Maxwell (15) and Green (8) tried to stay at the wicket but both were dismissed cheaply as Australiaslumped further to 140/7 . Thus from 110/2 Australia lost 5 wickets for 30 runs . Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc tried to repair the damage.    Starc (28)  in particular played some big shots towards the end.  In the end, Australia were all out for 199 runs in 49.3 overs.  For India, Jadeja took 3 wickets, Bumrah and Kuldeep took 2 wickets each and Mohammed Siraj, Ravichandran Ashwin and Hardik Pandya took 1 wicket each.

 In reply  Ishan Kishan got out on the very first ball of Starc when he came to bat with a target of 200 runs.  He got the opportunity as Shubman Gill was not present.  The opener could not use it.  He slashed outside off and was caught .   Josh Hazlewood rattled  India twice in the next over.  He had Rohit lbw for 0 and Shreyas caught at cover trying a drive .  Both returned for zero runs.  India lost 3 wickets for just 2 runs.

Kohli also looked jittery and beaten a few times . He tried to pull Hazlewood and was dropped by Marsh . That drop proved very costly for Australia as Kohli settled down after that and played risk free cricket pinching singles with KL Rahul who batted flawlessly . The asking  rate was low and hence they took their time to build the partnership. Rahul played with responsibility and flawlessly. He played Zampa well and hit a couple of boundaries which gave India belief on a tricky pitch . 

 Both the batsmen completed their fifties.  They knew that if a new batsman lands on this wicket, they will be in trouble. Hence they have to finish the match.  That's how they were playing.  Australia were troubled by their spinners.  They could not perform like  the Indian spinners.  Adam Zampa in particular disappointed.  Cummins had great confidence in him.  But he could not bring the team wickets.

 As time went on, India was moving closer to victory.  Cummins tried everything.  But the wicket was not coming.    Virat was slowly moving towards his century.  But he got out after 85 runs pulling Hazlewood straight to midwicket .    Virat-Rahul's pair of 165 runs won the team the match .  In the end India won the match by 6 wickets with 52 balls to spare.  Rahul remained unbeaten on 97 runs to get the player of the match award .