Perth, Jan 12: Rohit Sharma’s (171 n o, 163b, 13×4, 7×6) scintillating innings went in vain as Australia rode on skipper Steve Smith’s (149, 135b, 11×4, 2×6) fluent knock and his 242 runs stand for the third wicket with George Bailey (112, 120b, 7×4, 2×6) to script a comfortable five-wicket victory at the WACA here Tuesday against India. The hosts thus lead the five-match ODI series 1-0.
On one of the flattest WACA tracks in recent times, India scored a commanding 309 for three courtesy Rohit’s brilliant strokeplay but in the end the Australians had the last laugh.
Rohit’s knock was the best by an Indian while vice-captain Virat Kohli (91, 97b, 9×4, 1×6) also impressed and the duo added 207 runs for the second wicket.
While it was another heartbreaking end to a Rohit century that ended in a losing cause (his T20 hundred and ODI hundred against SA were scored in defeats), Australian skipper Smith again turned out to be India’s nemesis pacing his innings to perfection.
Smith’s sequence of scores against the ‘Men in Blue’ across all formats in 2015 and 2016 read: 162 n o, 52 n o, 133, 28, 192, 14, 117, 71, 47, 105 and 149.
The Indian bowling attack looked completely out of depth as the Smith-Bailey duo never did anything extraordinary but still managed to hammer Umesh Yadav and co with monotonic regularity. For India, debutant Barinder Sran (3/56) managed to create an impression with early breakthroughs but the other bowlers failed to join the party.
Especially disappointing were India’s spin twins Ravichandran Ashwin (2/68 in 9 overs) and Ravindra Jadeja (0/61 in 9 overs) and both looked far from penetrative. They could hardly extract any turn and were played with consummate ease by the Aussie captain, whose footwork was exemplary.
While Australia were 21 for two in the fifth over, things could have taken a different turn as Bailey looked to have gloved the first delivery he faced bowled by Sran. TV replays clearly showed that the batsman had gloved the ball, but with India’s apathy towards the DRS, Bailey escaped.
Jadeja proved to be expensive, but it was Ashwin who disappointed the most, leaking runs in his first spell. The Tamil Nadu tweaker, who had a lot of success on the designer tracks at home, was hit for six boundaries and two sixes in his first six overs. Incidentally this was the sixth time that a total of 300-plus had been chased down in Australia in 57 attempts. PTI
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