ICC World Cup 2023: Kuldeep set the tone for India’s victory over Aussies

Kuldeep Yadav takes a catch to dismiss Oz opener David Warner in Chennai on Sunday. Pic/PTI

The first match of a World Cup is extremely tense and crucial, and that's exactly how it turned out to be. Australia won an important toss on a pitch that looked extremely dry and had a lot of cracks. It was expected to spin, expected to play slow and that's exactly what happened. The Indian bowlers though, were impeccable from ball one and Jasprit Bumrah rounded up a fantastic over by getting Mitchell Marsh caught by Virat Kohli, who dived to his left at first slip.

The turning point

After that, David Warner and Steven Smith had a partnership but Kuldeep Yadav, who was in the team to get wickets and who was bowling in a very attacking manner, got Warner caught and bowled. I thought this was the most crucial part of the game, because had Warner and Smith added 70 or 80 more in that partnership, India would have been chasing a score well above par on that pitch.

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The rest of the Australian batting was completely broken by a fantastic spell by Ravindra Jadeja. Local CSK hero Jadeja got Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and Alex Carey to completely break the back of the Australian batting.

India started in a disastrous manner and were 2-3 very quickly. Australia's biggest strength is the fantastic three fast bowlers that they have. Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood had India on the mat, but in walked a resolute Kohli and he set about building a fantastic partnership with KL Rahul which ultimately yielded 165 runs. They had just the right approach for this kind of pitch. They put their heads down, waited for the ball to come to them and manoeuvred the ball into spaces for singles and twos. This pitch demanded old-fashioned kind of grind while chasing and that's what this duo did very well.

India had their moments of panic in the first few overs but No. 3 Kohli and No. 5 Rahul have shown that they are in fantastic form and this augurs well for India for the rest of the tournament.

Bowlers shine

The other big plus for India from this game is that their bowling unit displayed impeccable form. Bumrah was fantastic, so was Mohammed Siraj, who ran in and bowled hard, quick and into the stumps. Ravichandran Ashwin was crafty as usual. After a couple of overs where he couldn't find the right length, he quickly got into his groove and bowled a fantastic 10-over spell. Jadeja was his usual self and on a pitch which yielded a little bit of turn, he was simply unplayable. With his brand of flat and fast left-arm spin, he had Smith, Labuschagne and Carey and that absolutely was the death knell for Australia. Kuldeep looked good as well. He is in this team to take wickets and he looked aggressive from ball one. So, all in all, a great start for India and they keep their tag of favourites as they head into the next game against Afghanistan.