Veteran fast-bowler Mohammed Shami bagged the second five-for of his ODI career and propelled India to bowl out Australia for 276 in the series opener at PCA Stadium in Mohali on Friday.
On a two-paced pitch, different from the usual batting-friendly pitches at the venue, Shami bowled good lengths, used his straight seam position well and made life tough for Australian batters to pick 5-51 in ten overs, making it the second straight time an Indian fast-bowler picked a five-for in ODIs.
Jasprit Bumrah was outstanding in his 1-43 while left-arm spin all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and a returning ace off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took a wicket each in a neat Indian bowling performance.
India would have mixed feelings about its sloppy fielding efforts while Australia will be pondering over a below-par batting performance where none of its batters made it big, with David Warner being the lone half-centurion in the innings.
Electing to bowl first, Shami struck the first blow for India, getting a length delivery to shape away and take the outside edge of Mitchell Marsh’s front-foot defence to second slip on his fourth ball of the match.
Warner and Steve Smith joined forces to share a 94-run partnership for the second wicket. After getting his first boundary via an outside edge off Bumrah, Warner smacked Shardul Thakur for a brace of fours and even got a life on 14 when Shreyas Iyer dropped his catch at extra cover.
Warner was in the mood to feast on loose deliveries – heaving Ashwin and Thakur over mid-wicket for a six each, followed by swivelling twice and glancing once against the latter. Shortly after getting his 29th ODI half-century, Warner fell for 52 when he holed out in the deep off a miscued slog-sweep against Jadeja.
Shami came back to castle Smith with a length ball and upright seam taking the inside edge to hit the stumps. Stand-in captain KL Rahul missed a run-out chance of Marnus Labuschagne, but ten overs later played a hand in getting the right-handed batter out.
In an attempt to reverse-sweep against Ashwin, Labuschagne got a spike on the ball which went behind and Rahul failed to latch on it. The ball hit his right leg and ricocheted to hit the stumps, when Labuschagne’s back foot was outside the crease, ending his knock at 39, bringing his 45-run third-wicket stand with Cameron Green to a close.
A mix-up between Green and Josh Inglis, where Rahul failed to grab the ball, saw the former being run-out for 31. Inglis and Marcus Stoinis tried to resurrect Australia’s innings by hitting seven fours and two sixes in their sixth wicket stand of 62 off 43 balls. But Shami’s return brought back India by castling Stoinis with a nip-backer on a good length.
Inglis was next to depart, miscuing to extra cover off Bumrah, followed by Shami having debutant Matt Short caught at cow corner and castling Sean Abbott to complete a five-wicket haul.
Pat Cummins smashed two fours and a six in his handy nine-ball 21 before Adam Zampa was run-out on last ball of Australia’s innings, as the visitors lost their last five wickets for 28 runs.
Brief Scores: Australia 276 (David Warner 52, Josh Inglis 45; Mohammed Shami 5-51, Jasprit Bumrah 1-43) against India.
*Except for the heading, this story has not been edited by The enewstime.in and has been published from an Agency feed.
