India fielded first after winning the toss and held Australia to 276 courtesy of Shami’s brilliance with the ball. Ruturaj Gaikwad (71 off 77), Shubman Gill (74 off 63), KL Rahul (58 not off 53) and Suryakumar Yadav (50 off 49) then combined to take India past the finish line in 48.4 overs.
Shami struck early for India, having Mitchell Marsh (4) caught at slip with a probing delivery. David Warner (52 off 53) and Steve Smith (41 off 60) added 94 runs for the second wicket. The stand ended when Warner slog-swept Jadeja and was caught in the deep. Shami then bowled Smith with one that came back sharply.
Marnus Labuschagne (39 off 49) was looking good until he was stumped off Ravichandran Ashwin, missing a reverse sweep. The ball hit Rahul’s pads and went on to hit the stumps. Cameron Green (31 off 52) was run out after a mix-up with Josh Inglis.
Inglis (45 off 45) and Marcus Stoinis (29 off 21) added 62 runs for the sixth wicket. Shami came back to clean up Stoinis and Jasprit Bumrah then dismissed Inglis with a slower ball. With the wickets of Matthew Short (2) and Sean Abbott (2), Shami completed his five-wicket haul. Pat Cummins slammed 21 off 9 to push Australia to a decent total.
In the chase, Gill and Gaikwad featured in a 142-run stand for the opening wicket. The latter hit 10 fours before being trapped lbw by Adam Zampa, missing his sweep. India lost Shreyas Iyer for 3 as he was involved in a mix-up with Gill. The latter was next to go, cleaned up by a Zampa slider.
Ishan Kishan fell for 18 off 26 balls, caught behind off Cummins. Rahul and Suryakumar, then added 80 runs for the fifth wicket to ease India’s path to victory. Rahul struck four fours and a six, the latter being the winning hit. Suryakumar hit five fours and a six, in a significant knock, bringing up on his third ODI fifty in his 26th innings.
The second ODI of the three-match series will be played at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore on Sunday, September 24.
--By A Cricket Correspondent
