Riding on all round performances by Hardik Pandya and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, team India managed to defeat Australia by 26 runs in a rain-curtailed match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai last Sunday. With this victory, Virat Kohli-led team India have taken a 1-0 lead in the 5-match ODI series.
Australia were set a target of 164 runs in 21 overs through Duckworth and Lewis System after rain finally relented in Chennai. After winning toss and electing to bat first, India set 282 runs for team Australia. India made what could be termed as the worst start to their innings, losing their first three wickets of just 11 runs.
Though opener Rohit Shrama (28) and Kedar Jadhav (40) tried to find their feet slowly, it seemed that the pitch was assisting the Australian pacers. However, India rode on contrasting half centuries from all-rounder Pandya (83) and former skipper Dhoni (79) to help India recover from a precarious 87-5 and post a score of 281-7 in their stipulated 50 overs against the Steve Smith-led side.
It was Pandya's career-best ODI score, surpassing his previous best figures of 76, which he notched up against Pakistan in the finals of the ICC Champions Trophy final in England earlier this year. Meanwhile, Dhoni, who also struck four boundaries and two sixes in his 75-ball knock, also forged another healthy 72-run seventh wicket stand with Bhuvneshwar Kumar (unbeaten at 32) after the loss of Pandya.
For Australia, pacer Nathan Coulter-Nile was the pick of the bowlers as he claimed the wickets of opener Ajinkya Rahane (five), and skipper Virat Kohli and Manish Pandey (both for noughts). James Faulkner and Adam Zampa also chipped in with a wicket each.
However, a couple of fielding blemishes cost Australia dear. Debutant Hilton Cartwright failed to hit the stumps with a direct hit from cover and Dhoni was handed a reprieve when on 7. Smith, who had earlier dropped Rohit Sharma (28) at slips, let his team down in the 28th over. He did the right thing by brining Coulter-Nile back, but couldn't hold on to a Pandya edge low to his left with the latter on 13.
India entered this series after having swept Sri Lanka across formats recently, and the team is gradually becoming a ruthless unit with players for every condition and situation. Australia, on the other hand, have returned to India for the first time since their fiery and controversial Border-Gavaskar series earlier this year, which India won 2-1 and which ended with Kohli declaring some of his friendships with the Australian players had been irreparably damaged.
