India vs Australia 2013: First ODI - Australian pace bowlers blow India away

Aaron Finch set up Australia’s victory with a breezy 72 off 79 deliveries

Chasing a mammoth 305 runs to win, India were bowled out for 232 courtesy of a remarkable bowling performance from the Australian fast bowling quartet of Mitchell Johnson, Clint Mckay, James Faulkner and Shane Watson, who shared 8 of the 10 Indian wickets to fall on the day at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune.

Shikhar Dhawan was the first one to go, edging Faulkner to the wicketkeeper. Rohit Sharma (42 off 47), who had done very well to ward-off the initial threat from a pacy Johnson, who reached speeds of 150+ Kph consistently, and a controlled Mckay, undid all the good work when he tried to dab a delivery from Watson, only to be dismissed caught behind.

With the score at 66/2 in 13.5 overs, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina, promoted to number 4, got off to a very good start scoring 71 runs in the next 13.3 overs. Needing 168 off 137 deliveries and with 8 wickets in hand, India looked very much in the game. It all turned upside down after the dismissal of Raina (39 off 45), caught off a leading edge at third man.

While Yuvraj Singh and Ravindra Jadeja were bounced out, Dhoni was cleaned up by a peach of an out-swinger from Mckay. Kohli (61 off 85) was trapped lbw to Watson as India were restricted to 232 in 49.4 overs.

Earlier in the day, batting first, the Australian openers Aaron Finch and Phillip Hughes were able to survive a probing six-over spell from the Indian seamers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Vinay Kumar. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, in particular, was very impressive giving away only one run in his first three overs.

Just when things started to look ominous for Australia with an array of spinners lined up, Finch and Hughes turned the tables to take Australia from 14/0 in 6 overs to 110/0 in 18.1 overs. It all started turning haywire for India when Bhuvneshwar was taken for 15 runs in the seventh over of the match, of which 14 came off Finch’s bat.

Ishant Sharma’s introduction did not help the home team’s cause either. Ravindra Jadeja finally broke the partnership as Hughes (47 off 53) guided a delivery, that was turning in, straight to the fielder at the leg-slip. Yuvraj Singh gave India a double-breakthrough as Watson (2) and Finch (72 off 79 deliveries), in an attempt to hit the left-arm spinner out of the park, holed out at long-on and long-off respectively.

Yuvraj was not finished as he effected a run-out of Adam Voges with a direct-hit to reduce Australia to 172-4 in 32 overs. Despite the fall of wickets at regular intervals, a 82-ball 85 from George Bailey and cameos from Maxwell (31 off 23) and Faulkner (27 off 22) helped the visitors set an imposing target of 305 for the visitors.