India vs Australia 2013: 1st ODI Review

George Bailey

India and Australia locked horns in the first ODI of the 7 match series at Pune. Australia won the toss and chose to bat first. It turned out to be a correct decision as they crushed India by 72 runs. The Aussie skipper George Bailey was awarded Man of the Match.

The Australian openers seemed to have a strategy to see-off the new ball. They started extremely slowly. Aussies played 3 maidens out of the first 6 overs with Aaron Finch scoring just 2 runs off 20 balls. There was a sudden shift in gear in the 7^th over as it went for 15 runs. Finch hit 2 fours and a six in the over and Bhuvaneshwar’s bowling figures went from 3-2-1-0 to 4-2-16-0. The Aussie openers then drove the innings with good rate as Indian bowlers struggled to get a breakthrough.

Just like the one-off T20 international, the one over from Virat Kohli made no sense. Australia was then cruising at 108/0 after 18 overs. Then the first breakthrough came in 19^th over when Phil Hughes despite looking in good touch after a long time sent Ravindra Jadeja’s turning delivery straight into the hands of Suresh Raina at leg slip.

In the next over, the other left armer, Yuvraj, struck on his first ball. The victim this time was the most experienced batsman in the line-up, Shane Watson. He struck again in the 28^th over when Finch was beaten by the flight and mistimed the hit to be caught at long-off. The innings then slowed down a bit but Bailey kept hitting occasional boundaries.

Yuvraj was not yet done with the Aussies. He fired a throw from point and caught Adam Voges short of crease. Maxwell played a good hand in the batting powerplay and some late strikes from JamesFaulkner and Clint McKay helped Australia get past 300. Bailey played beautifully and scored a well-deserved 85.

The Indian openers started as cautiously as their counterparts with Johnson firing the deliveries at more than 150 kmph. Shikhar Dhawan fell early in the 7^th over but Rohit Sharma looked in good touch. Once again he threw his wicket with a poor shot in the 14^th over. Surprisingly, Raina came out to accompany Kohli at no. 4 instead of in-form Yuvraj Singh.

Kohli and Raina shared 71 runs partnership before Raina fell in 28^th over at 39. Yuvraj got lucky as he edged a short ball in the same over but it cleared the boundary. However the next one from Johnson at 151 kmph became his undoing. Soon Kohli accompanied him to the pavilion after a well deserved 61.

The regular fall of wickets slowed down the innings considerably and the required run-rate reached 9.2 before the batting powerplay. It was of no help either as India scored 26/1 in the powerplay with the loss of Jadeja. In the very next over, Dhoni was clean bowled by McKay and with that all hopes of an Indian win ended.

It was only a formality after that as the lower order crumbled in the last 9 overs and Australia won convincingly.