Mumbai: India made a struggling but dominating victory over Australia at the renowned Wankhede Stadium here in the first of the 3-match ODI series. KL Rahul, who was out of form, shined with his bat for the day, while seamers Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami worked with the ball to contribute to the victory.
With a green wicket which backed seamers, batters struggled to find runs except for Aussies' Mitchell Marsh, who cracked 81 off 65, scoring ten boundaries and five sixes. Both teams suffered a lot on the pitch. When Australia had a great start but fell later, India had a pathetic start with Ishan (3) Kishan, Virat Kohli (4), and Suryakumar Yadav (0) couldn't do much. Youngster opener Shubhman Gill (20) exhibited a good attempt but couldn't anchor himself to the pitch.
In the first innings, Shami and Siraj took three wickets and Ravindra Jadeja, who returned after injury, took two wickets to restrict Australia to 188 for all out. India chased the score in 39.5 overs.
But it was Rahul who played with caution to take India to shore. He hit only four boundaries in his fifty while batters, including Kohli, struggled at the wicket and failed. After his fifty, Rahul hit a six and three fours before reaching 75 from 91 balls. His unbeaten partnership of 108 runs in the sixth wicket with Jadeja helped India the most. Rahul added 44 runs in the fifth wicket with captain Hardik Pandya who was also a good contribution.
It was not the usual Wankhede wicket and offered movement off the seam to the bowlers, and the bowlers held the upper hand barring the magnificent 65-ball 81 by Australia's makeshift opener Mitchell Marsh and the controlled knocks by Rahul and Jadeja.
Brief scores:
Australia 188 all out in 35.4 overs (Mitchell Marsh 81, Steve Smith 22; Mohammed Shami 3-17, Mohd Siraj 3-29) lost to India 191/5 in 39.5 overs (KL Rahul 75 not out, Ravindra Jadeja 45 not out, Hardik Pandya 25; Mitchell Starc 3-49, Marcus Stoinis 2-27) by five wicket