Australia gave India a 10-wicket hiding in the One-Day International series opener in Mumbai on Tuesday, exposing the home team’s middle-order frailty and putting to sword their rusty bowling lineup.
Anticipating dew in the evening session, Aaron Finch opted to field. India ended up with a below-par 255 on a decent batting surface after a middle-order failure.
Australia made short work of the target, racing to a resounding victory in 37.4 overs with David Warner (128 not out off 112) and Finch (110 not out off 114) smashing unbeaten centuries, making the Indian attack look rather ordinary. They simply ran away with chase, sharing 30 boundaries and five sixes between them.
The manner of India’s defeat, which came after dominating limited overs series wins against West Indies and Sri Lanka, has left the hosts with plenty to ponder ahead of the second game in Rajkot on Friday.
India made some unmissable changes in their batting combination with Virat Kohli pushing himself down to number four to accommodate specialist openers Shikhar Dhawan (74 off 91) and K L Rahul (47 off 61) in the playing eleven. But that move did not quite work out, with India collapsing from 134/1 in 27 overs to 255 in 49.1 overs. \
The run-chase was a walk in the park for the Aussies as the openers put together the highest ODI partnership by any team against India. The 10-wicket win was also the first of its kind for Australia over India in this format.
There was a sense of disbelief on Twitter over how the match panned out:
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