Mohammed Shami registered his best figures in ODI cricket, picking five wickets giving away just 51 runs, while stand-in captain KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Suryakumar Yadav smashed fifties to help India beat Australia by 5 wickets. The Indian team didn’t miss the likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli as they registered a clinical win in the 3-match ODI series opener at Mohali on Friday, September 22 with India head and shoulders above Australia in all three departments.
Riding on Shami’s fiery spell, India bundled out Australia for a total of 276 after Rahul won the toss and elected to bowl first. Gill and Gaikwad stitched together a 142-run opening stand to put India in cruise control of the chase, the Men in Blue did suffer a mini-collapse of sorts midway through their inning but Rahul joined hands with Surya and later Ravindra Jadeja to take his side over the line.
The captain smashed a boundary, followed by a six to score the winning runs, and with that, the Indian team became the number 1 ranked side in ODI cricket.
IND vs AUS 1st ODI Highlights
Gill entertained his home crowd, playing in front of his family but he failed to score yet another century, Ruturaj too missed out on his ton but the Indian openers put India in cruise control as they came out to chase 277.
The Men in Blue completed the chase with 8 balls to spare as they took a 1-0 lead in the series. Rahul and Co. will hope to wrap up the series even before the likes of Virat and Rohit return with the two sides meeting in the second ODI in Indore on September 24 which becomes a do-or-die game for Australia.
Shami started it all off with an early dismissal of Mitchell Marsh before David Warner took charge and smashed a fifty to put Australia in the driving seat. Shreyas Iyer dropped a catch to give the opener a lifeline which nearly could have proven deadly but Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Warner to bring India back in the contest.
Marnus Labuschagne and Cameron Green were looking to stitch together a partnership when Shami struck again to dismiss the former.
Green then joined hands with Josh Inglis, the pair were cruising well when a mix-up saw Green dismissed, and Inglis too departed shortly before he could complete his fifty.
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Shami then ran rampant as the Australian lower order collapsed before the captain Pat Cummins smashed a few lusty blows, Shardul Thakur failed to open his account but Jasprit Bumrah, Jadeja, and Ravichandran Ashwin all chipped in with a wicket each.
Gill and Ruturaj then came out firing on cylinders, the pair smashed their respective fifties, Ruturaj was the first man to fall when Adam Zampa struck his plumb in front of the stumps. A mix-up between Shreyas Iyer and Gill saw the former dismissed for 3, before Gill was castled by Zampa.
Ishan Kishan scored 18 runs before falling prey to Cummins, after which Rahul and Surya steadied the ship, allayed the fears of a middle-order collapse and saw the Men in Blue to the top of the ICC ODI rankings.
India are only the second side after South Africa to be ranked number 1 across all formats.
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