In quest of winning the ICC Cricket World Cup on their home ground, India locked horn with Australia at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday. Till filing of this report at 9:30 PM, India were enroute to victory as they needed 76 runs from 19 overs with seven wickets in hand.
It was a low-scoring encounter in Chennai, Australia were bowled out for a mere 199. However, the Aussies didn’t give up fight as they crippled India’s top three batsmen quickly. At one stage, India were three wickets down with just 2 runs on board. However, from there India’s superstar batsman Virat Kohli and KL Rahul formed a formidable partnership. This epic encounter showed why these two teams are the favourites to lift the World Cup.
There were no better ways for cricket fanatics to spend a Sunday afternoon than watching an India vs Australia World Cup match. After three days of fairly scattered attendances and one-sided contests, we can say with some conviction that Sunday’s match was completely different as two powerhouses of cricket collided.
Earlier, Ravindra Jadeja led India's spin charge with figures of 3-28 to bowl out Australia for 199.
Five-time champions Australia won the toss and elected to bat first at Chennai's M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in the 150th ODI meeting between the two cricket powerhouses, who opened their campaigns in the showpiece event.
But the Australian innings ended in 49.3 overs as Jadeja stood out in his 10 overs of left-arm spin. Fellow spinner Kuldeep Yadav and fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah took two wickets each.
Australia lost an early wicket before veteran batsmen David Warner (41) and Steve Smith (46) hit back in a partnership of 69.
Former captain Virat Kohli made an early impact with a diving slip catch to send back Mitchell Marsh, for a six-ball duck, off Bumrah.
The left-handed Warner reached 1,000 World Cup runs, passing Indian batting great Sachin Tendulkar's previous best landmark.
Warner needed 19 innings to Tendulkar's 20.
Both Warner and Smith made their experience count with a steady approach on a tough batting pitch as India rotated their bowlers.
Kuldeep, a left-arm wrist spinner, broke the stand to send back Warner, caught and bowled amid a roar from the crowd that nearly filled the stadium in contrast to the empty seats in the other matches so far.
Smith stuck around with Marnus Labuschagne as runs came at a premium and a miserly Jadeja got his first wicket with his left-arm spin.
He bowled Smith to deny the former captain his fifty and then struck twice in his next over including wicketkeeper-batsman Alex Carey for a duck to rattle the opposition batting.
Wickets kept tumbling and Australia slipped further when Glenn Maxwell fell for 15, bowled off Kuldeep and Cameron Green out to Ravichandran Ashwin.
Australia collapsed from 110-2 to 140-7 before skipper Pat Cummins hit the first six of the match, but fell for 15 in another attempt to hit the ball beyond the boundary.
Number nine Mitchell Starc hit 28 to add some respect to the total.