Kohli’s 85 helps India start with win over Australia
Virat Kohli made a crucial 85 as World Cup hosts India overcame an early collapse to begin their campaign with a six-wicket win over Australia.
Steve Smith (46) and David Warner (41) top-scored in Australia’s total of 199 after they won the toss and batted.
India were in trouble after the loss of early wickets left them teetering on 2-3 before Kohli and KL Rahul rebuilt.
Kohli was caught at mid-wicket off the bowling of Josh Hazlewood (3-38) but Rahul (97 not out) saw India home.
Virat Kohli made a crucial 85 as World Cup hosts India overcame an early collapse to begin their campaign with a six-wicket win over Australia.
Steve Smith (46) and David Warner (41) top-scored in Australia’s total of 199 after they won the toss and batted.
India were in trouble after the loss of early wickets left them teetering on 2-3 before Kohli and KL Rahul rebuilt.
Kohli was caught at mid-wicket off the bowling of Josh Hazlewood (3-38) but Rahul (97 not out) saw India home.
In the 10 ODIs played at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium since 2011, the average score was 238 so Australia’s total felt comfortable for the hosts.
Yet India began their response in a jittery fashion as Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer all fell without scoring to a combination of ill-judged aggression and fine bowling from Mitchell Starc (1-31) and Hazlewood.
Kohli and Rahul saw off a tricky period and once the shine went off the white ball and it stopped swinging, Australia’s attack looked unthreatening and skipper Pat Cummins bereft of ideas on how to take wickets.
The India pair were content to accumulate and then showed more attacking intent to punish the bad ball as they enjoyed a stand of 165 for the fourth wicket.
Rahul and Hardik Pandya took them over the line with 52 balls to spare after a blitz of late boundaries.
In a country with a population of 1.4 billion, where cricket is akin to religion, there was inevitable frenzied scrutiny on the hosts in their opening World Cup match.
The tag of home favourites did not seem to weigh heavily on the shoulders of India’s players in the field, though.
Their chests were puffed out during the national anthem and their self-belief did not waver, as they rolled Australia for 199 with disciplined bowling and fielding.
India’s blueprint of stifling the runs through the middle overs through spin, bookended by menacing spells from their pace bowlers did the trick.
But when Starc and Hazlewood made early inroads into their batting it exposed some underlying nerves as panic briefly set in and silenced the vociferous home crowd.
Inevitably, the man for such a crisis stepped up when India needed it.
Kohli was a stoic presence at the crease, calmly rotating the strike with the equally unflustered Rahul, as he adjusted to the pace of the pitch and intelligently worked the ball into gaps.
He did offer a chance in eighth over – spooning a pull to a short ball from Hazlewood which Mitch Marsh dropped sliding in when wicketkeeper Alex Carey was better placed to take the catch.
The psychological blow had India lost their stellar player at that point, despite Rahul’s serene knock, might have influenced the outcome.
Until his dismissal – thanks to a smart catch by Marnus Labuschagne at mid-wicket after Kohli came a cropper on the pull – this was a flawless knock from the 34-year-old in what could well be his final 50-over World Cup.
If India are to win their first major white-ball tournament since the 2013 Champions Trophy then Kohli will invariably have a leading hand at key moments in the next few weeks.
Australia had a curious air about them in the build-up to this match with captain Cummins talking about how they might react to a defeat to the hosts.
The sight of Warner and Smith looking exhausted on plastic chairs under umbrellas, brought onto the field during the drinks break, did not exactly inspire confidence either.
At the halfway point of their innings Australia had been 101-2 but an experienced top six – all apart from 28-year-old Labuschagne are north of 30 – were unable to find an answer to India’s spinners on an awkward pitch.
The scrutiny on the failure of their old stagers with the bat, however, masked a major selection oversight as their lack of another specialist spin bowler left them facing a chastening period during the middle overs.
Adam Zampa recovered from a bizarre swimming pool injury on the eve of the game to play, but he sank rather than swam as his eight wicketless overs cost 53 to leave him as Australia’s most expensive bowler.
There will be other venues more suited to Australia’s pace attack, who ran out of steam here, but with matches set to take place on used pitches later in the tournament the decision to rely on part-timers to fill the breach could come back to bite them.
A lack of a second spinner to Zampa even prompted fit-again Nathan Lyon, who has only appeared in 29 ODIs for Australia, to reveal on the eve of the match he has texted coach Andrew MacDonald saying he is ready to answer an SOS if the opportunity arises. (BBC)
