Openers David Warner and Aaron Finch’s centuries paved way for Australia to register an easy victory over India in the first ODI at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Tuesday. With this Victory, Australia now leads the three-match series with 1-0 score.
Chasing a score of 256, visitors kicked off the run-chase in style as both the openers smashed Indian bowlers out of the park. Warner and Finch took the score of Australian innings past 100 in just 13 overs.
Warner became the fourth-fastest batsman to smash 5000 ODI runs. The left-handed batsman achieved the feat in 115th innings. He surpassed England’s Joe Root who had scored these many runs in 116 innings.
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Both openers smashed individual centuries and remained unbeaten, powering the Kangaroos to a 10-wicket victory. Warner smashed 128* while Finch knocked 110*.
After being put in to bat first, India got off to bad start as Rohit Sharma got out in the fifth over. KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan stitched a 121 run stand to revive India’s hopes in the match.
Ashton Agar dismissed Rahul (47) in the 28th over which provoked a middle-order collapse. Dhawan’s wicket in the next over an added insult to the injury. The hosts then struggled to stitch any strong partnership as skipper Virat Kohli (16) and Shreyas Iyer (4) both went cheaply.
Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja’s 49 run stand gave some hopes but a flurry of wickets in the death overs saw India getting all out at the score of 255. For Australia, Mitchell Starc scalped three wickets while Pat Cummins and Kane Richardson both took two.
The second ODI between both teams will be played on January 17.
(With ANI inputs)