Shami rolls his arm over & Oz fall

Tribune News Service

Deepankar Sharda

Mohali, September 22

Mohammed Shami took up the baton from Mohammed Siraj with aplomb as the senior pacer’s five-wicket haul helped India beat Australia in the opening ODI of their three-match series here today. After the six-wicket heroics by Siraj in the Asia Cup final, his replacement Shami displayed his class with figures of 5/51 to restrict Australia to 276 runs.

India’s batters then complemented Shami’s effort, with four players getting 50-plus scores, as the hosts chased down the target with eight balls in hand. After openers Ruturaj Gaikwad (71 off 77 balls) and local boy Shubman Gill (74 off 63 balls) gave a dream start to the team by raising a 142-run stand, stand-in skipper KL Rahul (58 not out off 63 balls) and Suryakumar Yadav (58 off 63 balls) saw India to victory. Shreyas Iyer, desperate to get some time in the middle after returning from an injury layoff, could not make an impact as he was run out for three.

Earlier, Shami started the proceeding by dismissing the dangerous Mitchell Marsh in the first over. He also dismissed former skipper Steven Smith and the big-hitting Marcus Stoinis to disrupt Australia’s progress.

I think the intensity in the afternoon was great, after Colombo this felt like heaven at the start. It gets physically challenging, but we’ve all worked on our fitness and that’s showing on the field. After Shubman got out, it was a bit tricky with the set batter out. But managed to build a good partnership with Surya. —KL Rahul, India Captain

None of the Australian batters could score big as seven players scored in double digits but only David Warmer (51) scored a half-century.

Brief scores: Australia: 276 all out (Warner 52, Inglis 45; Shami 5/51); India: 281/5 in 48.4 overs (Gill 74, Gaikwad 71, KL Rahul 58*, Suryakumar 50; Zampa 2/57).

5This is only the fifth time that four batters have scored fifty-plus runs in an ODI innings against Australia. This is the second time by India after the 1987 World Cup game in New Delhi

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