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This isn’t the most seamer-friendly pitch; Hardik is being targeted today – A very hot day in Chennai. India’s support staff are waiting on the boundaries where the fast bowlers are fielding and dumping ice-cold towels on their necks.
Marsh drops Kohli, and that cost them the match, quite literally! Indi would’ve been 20-4. It felt like it was Carey’s catch but Marsh called it out pretty loudly, . But if they had caught that, things would have been different.
Australia did a lot of Boo Boo on the field today, they missed at least 6-7 catches, that’s despicable, you can’t expect that from Australia, everyone looks up to Australia for their fielding. When the time came it was none other than Warner who shows up, he salvaged the entire team’s fielding today.
The Indian spinners have to get some credit. Both Ashwin and Kuldeep bring some variety into the middle overs. The overs where the game is supposed to get boring, they’re making it interesting.
Look at Ashwin’s dismissal of Smith – Ashiwin’s googly to Smith was one of the “Ouuuu” books!
Kuldeep to Warner, OUT/ Classic wrist-spinners dismissal! Full ball around off. Turning away Warner tries to drill it past Kuldeep. Instead, ends up hitting a toe-ended shot to the bowler himself, and Kuldeep moves to his right to grab it. Kuldeep then kisses the ball in delight and looks upwards. Warner looks at the pitch as if to suggest he scuffed the shot like a poor golf swing.
A Classic Jadeja dismissal – Lapse in concentration? Turning just enough to beat the edge and knock off stump back. Smith just nods his head in disappointment. Length ball landing around the middle. Smith tried to fend from middle and off, but the ball did enough to hit the outer half of off stump. Another Australia batter out after getting well-set.
Rahul’s late cut is the best in the business. It’s because he seems to pick up the shorter length or even the flatter trajectory quicker than most other batters. Zampa couldn’t put a stop to it. At one point Zampa decided to one-up Rahul on the late cut with a googly, hoping the ball spinning into him might get a drag on or something. But Rahul once again picked the length early, picked the way it’d be turning too, and tapped it on top of the bounce to find another boundary. After two short balls went for runs, Zampa went back to the tossed up variety, ended up overcooking it and Rahul nailed the full toss through cover for the third four of the over.
Hazelwood is Hazelgood! He sends Rohit Sharma, Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan to the pavilion at 0! This is the first match in India’s entire history of playing ODIs that THREE of their top four have bagged ducks. This could be problematic for the upcoming matches with similar strong bowling sides like England and South Africa. Rohit needs to strike especially; he’s always stuck with these big sides. Let’s look at his last 5 matches with Aus. I have more faith in Ishan sometimes than in Shreyas; he was just not doing his part today. It’s interesting that Australia was invited to play in Chennai? IN days when it does feel like matches are now designated and not drawn like in the older days. Like IndPak in one of the largest stadiums.
KL’s 97! KL Rahul has come in and sorted it. He was on 91, with India needing five to win. He went for an extra cover drive. He wanted four for it, but when it sailed over the rope, he went down on his haunches, wondering what could have been. He was thinking, hit four, then hit six, get the century and the win. Instead, he gets just the win and walks off unbeaten on 97
KL and Kohli complement each other so well; they are quick between the wickets, good at finding gaps, and know how to encourage each other and keep pressure off by scoring boundaries. Perfect sync. They built 165 runs together, everything India missed in the opening, they made up for it.
Bumrah is back! He kicks out Mitch Marsh in a masterclass. Three balls coming in and then slightly pushing it outside off. Now, the breakthrough. It is so Bumrah. He doesn’t go searching for wickets. All he does is bowl ball after ball that can’t be turned into runs. Marsh was 0 of 5. He wasn’t getting any release. He saw one that was a hint wider outside off stump than Bumrah’s usual line and thoguht okay, there’s a dab to third man. But that ball was wider because Bumrah wanted it to seam in, and seam in it did. Worse, it bounced extra. It surprised Marsh. It cramped him. And he gets caught at slip with the ball almost running off the full face of the angled bat. The desperation to score, the unhittable lines and lengths, made that dismissal possible.
Everyone talked about India’s batting attack, but boy, do they look with their bowling today. It’s working exactly how it should in a 50-over format.
Today, for example, on a black soil Chennai pitch, which tends to produce slow, low turners, they can bank on 10 overs from Adam Zampa, the highest wicket-taker among Full Members, between this World Cup and the last.
For India, there’s Ash, Kuldeep, and Jadeja. India always looked strong on and off the paper. It’s their home ground, so we did expect a lot of turns.
Bumrah is back! All those balls slightly outside almost got Warner thrice.
More from this ICC World Cup 2023
