Australia slump to ODI loss against India
Sep 17, 2017 - 6:55 PM Australia captain Steve Smith has no intention of panicking after his side lost the first one day-international to India in a rain-shortened match.While the visitors went down after a lengthy delay on Sunday, Smith isn't reading too much into the result, having collapsed chasing a revised target 164 off 21 overs.
"I'm not really concerned," Smith said.
"160 with one new ball would have made things easier.
"You don't really have a great deal of time to make things up when you need eight an over basically from ball one."
Australia slumped to 4-35 in the eighth over when David Warner nicked Kaldeep Yadav through to MS Dhoni.
Glenn Maxwell tried to launch a rearguard action, but his 39 off 18 balls wasn't enough to save his side from going one-nil down in the five-match series.
Maxwell was caught in the deep off Yuzvendra Chahal (3-30) looking to clear the boundary for a sixth time before Marcus Stoinis (three) departed three balls later.
From 6-76 the mountain was too steep to climb and Australia finished 27 runs short at 9-137.
It was a cruel loss given the match was only minutes from being abandoned when play resumed.
Rain started falling shortly after India fought back to post 7-281 off their 50 overs after the Australian bowlers dominated early.
Injury-plagued paceman Nathan Coulter-Nile (3-44) made a dream start to his first international match since June last year with a sensational opening spell.
The 29-year-old's outswing yielded three wickets in 13 balls including the prized scalp of India captain Virat Kohli who was out for a duck to a sensational one-handed catch from Maxwell.
But with India reeling at 5-87 after Stoinis chimed in with two wickets, Dhoni (79 off 88) steadied the ship in trademark fashion.
"MS then finished it off like he does," Kohli said.
Dhoni combined with Hardik Pandya for a vital 118-run partnership.
"In the end it proved to be a match-winning partnership," Smith said.
"Unfortunately we weren't able to capitalise on the start we had."
Pandya looked to be on his way to a century, but he top-edged an attempted slog sweep to third man off Zampa to top score with 83 off 66 balls, including five sixes and five fours.
Later, Pandya took the crucial wickets of Smith and Travis Head to finish with 2-28 in a man-of-the-match performance.
The series now moves to Kolkata on Thursday.
Source: AAP
No one has shouted yet.
Be the first!
Be the first!
Related News
- Ashton Agar all grown up since Ashes debut Dec 30
- All eyes on SCG pitch for the Ashes finale Dec 30
- In-form Smith setting new benchmark: Cook Dec 30
- Cook eyes big Ashes finish in Australia Dec 30
- Insatiable Smith continues dominant Ashes Dec 30
- MCG pitch not good for anyone: Smith Dec 30
- Mitch Marsh has come a long way: Smith Dec 30
- Aussies bat out draw in fourth Ashes Test Dec 30
- Warner falls short of record-breaking ton Dec 29
- Khawaja fires back at 'bizarre' criticism Dec 29
- Agar drafted into Test squad for SCG clash Dec 29
- Reverse-swing to decide fourth Ashes Test Dec 29