Twitter reacts as Rohit Sharma's magnificent century against Australia at SCG goes in vain
By drawing the final Test, India created at the Sydney Cricket Ground becoming the first team to win a Test series Down Under but could not recreate the magic in the first ODI. In an attempt to chase down Australia's total, Rohit Sharma was the star of the Indian innings. He scored a 129-ball 133 but that was not enough as MS Dhoni was the only other Indian batsman to make a useful contribution.
Earlier in the match, the home team, sporting a retro-kit, chose to bat first on what was expected to be track favourable to batting. Bhuvneshwar Kumar provided India with a much-needed breakthrough by bowling out Australian skipper, Aaron Finch.
After the departure of Finch, Usman Khawaja and Alex Carrey were heading towards a half-century partnership but Kuldeep Yadav's introduction spelt doom for the opener just before the end of the first powerplay. Shaun Marsh, who next came in stitched an 83-run partnership for the third wicket before Khawaja got out for 59.
The key feature of the Australian innings was the series of partnerships built by the home team batsmen. By scoring half-centuries, three Australian batsmen - Khawaja, Marsh and Handscomb -provided the perfect platform for the team to accelerate at the fag end. In the last 10 overs, Australia added 95 runs, thanks to Peter Handscomb and Marcus Stoinis. After the early departure of their skipper, the rest of the team did well to take Australia to 288 at the end of the 50 overs.
Early in their chase, India were in deep trouble as they lost three key wickets of Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, and Ambati Rayudu with just four runs on the board. While debutant Jason Behrendorff sent Dhawan back to the pavilion, his Perth Scorchers team-mate, Jhye Richardson sent Kohli and Rayudu to the pavilion in a double wicket maiden.
The Indian innings was then stabilized by a 137-run fourth wicket partnership between Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni. By scoring his first run of the day, Dhoni became the fifth batsman to score 10,000 ODI runs for India. Initially, both Rohit and Dhoni took their time in the middle to score runs but only the Hitman could capitalise later.
Unluckily for India, they lost the review early and MSD could not review the leg before wicket decision against him in spite of the ball pitching outside leg. Rohit Sharma continued the good display of batting but the climbing required run-rate and regular fall of wickets at the other end forced him to take risks. In his attempt to apply the pressure back onto the opposition, the Mumbai batsman got out in the 46th over.
After Sharma's dismissal, the match was already in Australia's bag as India needed 68 runs off just 25 balls. Later, Bhuvneshwar Kumar did his best with an unbeaten 23-ball 29 but India ended up losing the match by 34 runs. Jhye Richardson was Australia's best bowling picking up four wickets for just 26 runs in his quota of 10 overs. With this victory, Australia became the first team to register 1000 wins in international cricket.
Here's how Twitter reacted to India's loss to Australia in the first ODI: