India pass their Australia test with flying colours

Kohli and Rahul rescue India with 165-run stand after 2 for 3 situation against Australia; chase 200-run target with 6 wickets to spare and start campaign with a bang at MA Chidambaram Stadium

India’s character and mettle were seriously tested at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday, but they came through a searching examination with flying colours to get their World Cup campaign off to a roaring start.

Having lorded the middle overs against five-time former champions Australia and bowled them out for 199, India were rocked at the start of their chase when they lost skipper Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer, all for ducks, inside the first 12 deliveries. All of a sudden, at three wickets down for two runs, their target of 200 looked a million miles away.

Fortunately for them, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul weren’t willing to give up the fight. The duo had put on 233 against Pakistan in the Asia Cup in Colombo last month, and they invoked the spirit of that association in a game with much higher stakes. First with great circumspection and then with increasing flair and authority, they steadied the ship and later surged into the ascendancy during a wonderful alliance of 165.

Ravindra Jadeja celebrates a wicket yesterday. Pic/AFP

Kohli, who has made it a habit of delivering in India’s opening games at World Cups was dismissed with victory 33 runs away, but Rahul stayed on till the end, reiterating his value in the middle order with total finality. Kohli was lucky that Mitchell Marsh, who had fallen for a duck, spilled him off Hazlewood at square-leg when he was just 12 out of 20 for three, but after that, he was practically unstoppable.

A deserving hundred proved elusive for Rahul, but his unbeaten 97—he brought up the winning runs and the six-wicket triumph with a six over extra-cover off Pat Cummins—was worth every bit a century and more, celebrated with gusto by more than 32,500 excited fans who went home ecstatic.

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Their hopes had taken a beating when Mitchell Starc evicted Kishan to a loose stroke in the first over and Josh Hazlewood accounted for Rohit and Iyer in the space of four deliveries. On a dry surface where the ball gripped and the bounce was uneven, they had reason to fear the worst, especially with the ball doing a lot under lights, but long before the dew came into play, Kohli and Rahul had done a great job of putting them at ease.

The damage in the first half, after Cummins chose to bat, was done by Ravindra Jadeja, whose outstanding spell of 10-2-28-3 halted Australia in their tracks. The visitors were well placed at 110 for two, just past the halfway stage, but Jadeja carved through the middle-order with the sticks of Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and Alex Carey. All of that nullified David Warner’s industrious 41, and with Kuldeep Yadav and R Ashwin joining the party and Jasprit Bumrah turning in another excellent display, Australia had nowhere to hide.

Brief scores
Australia 199 all out in 49.3 overs (S Smith 46, D Warner 41; R Jadeja 3-28, J Bumrah 2-35, K Yadav 2-42) lost to India 201-4 in 41.2 overs (V Kohli 85, KL Rahul 97*; J Hazlewood 3-38) by six wickets

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