Hindustan Surkhiyan Desk: Rohit Sharma defended, left, swung, pulled, cut, gave his everything and scored 133 but they were not enough to even run Australia close as they romped to a 34-run win in Sydney to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match ODI series on Saturday. The win – their 4th in last 24 ODIs – also marked Australia’s international victory No. 1000.
The last time Rohit notched up a bigger score than his 133 on Saturday and still ended up on the losing side was also in Australia four years ago in Melbourne. That time though India were batting first. This time they were chasing and once they were reduced to 4 for 3 – their joint lowest score to lose the first three wickets in an ODI – the chase was never going to be easy.
Rohit and Dhoni’s first duty was to somehow stop the wickets from falling which were being blown away like matchsticks by the storm created by Australia’s new-ball bowlers Jason Behrendorff and Jhye Richardson. Behrendorff removed Dhawan for a duck in the very first over and Richardson, in his second over, got Kohli and Rayudu in a space of three deliveries to initiate a high-magnitude earthquake in the Indian batting line-up.
The experienced pair of Dhoni and Rohit protected India from the earthquake aftershocks with a 137-run fourth wicket stand but the damage done at the top was way too much to repair. Once Dhoni was dismissed after scoring his 2nd slowest fifty in ODIs (off 93 balls), Rohit’s tall mountain to climb just got taller and in the end became impossible with wickets falling regularly from the other end.
It's still well and truly game on with Rohit out in the middle…
Stream via Kayo HERE: https://t.co/rHhkFrd50M #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/shLiBJCSQk
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) January 12, 2019
Jhye Richardson was the star for Australia, picking up four wickets for 26 runs in his 10 overs
Earlier, Peter Handscomb switched gears in time to score a fighting 73 as a collective batting effort from the middle-order steered Australia to a competitive 288 for five
Usman Khawaja (59) and Shaun Marsh (54) scored half-centuries for Australia who lost skipper Aaron Finch (6) in a slow start after electing to bat.
A late charge from Handscomb and Stoinis meant that the hosts scored 93 runs in the last 10 overs, 59 of them coming in the last five.
They added 68 runs off 59 balls for in their fifth-wicket partnership as Handscomb delighted the home fans with eight boundaries including two sixes while Stoinis hit two fours and as many shots over the ropes.
Spinners Kuldeep Yadav (2/54) and Ravindra Jadeja (1/48) shared three wickets between them while pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/66) accounted for two batsmen.
Sloppy fielding from India towards the end also helped Australia as Ambati Rayudu dropped Handscomb (on 67 off Kumar).
Kumar bowled Finch (6) in the third over, an inswinger slipping in through the gate.
Alex Carey (24) made a good start and was looking set for a longer innings when Yadav outfoxed him in his very first over, caught at slip off a quicker top-spinner. Australia only managed 41-2 in the first 10 overs.
It brought Khawaja and Marsh together, and they put on 92 runs off 111 balls for the third wicket. In doing so, they pushed India to make changes in the middle overs. It didn’t help that Shami went off the field for a little while with a neck-related issue.
During that time, India experimented with Ambati Rayudu (0/13) but he failed to provide any control over proceedings. It didn’t help that Khaleel Ahmed (0/55) was having an off day, struggling with this front-foot and general control over line and length.
Khawaja-Marsh pair added 50 in 61 balls as Australia crossed 100 in the 23rd over. Khawaja brought up his fifth ODI half-century off 70 balls, and opened up a bit more to play some attractive sweeps.
But he perished in that manner as Jadeja trapped him lbw in the 29th over, providing a crucial breakthrough for India. Marsh carried on though, and reached his 13th ODI half-century off 65 balls, thus putting up 53 runs off 55 balls with Handscomb for the fourth wicket.
Their 50-run stand came off only 49 balls as Australia started to show a little more urgency. Shami though had returned to the field and along with Jadeja, exerted control over the proceedings and the run-rate never crossed the 5/over mark during that passage of play.
Australia finally managed to cross 200 in the 42nd over, but had lost Marsh in the process as he holed out off Yadav in the 38th over.
Stoinis’ arrival at the crease had helped press matters as both he and Handscomb opened up with a couple sixes and upped the run-rate.
Handscomb reached his second ODI half-century off 50 balls, helping push Australia past 250 in the 48th over.
