The hosts and favorites for the ICC World Cup 2023 are off to a solid start. However, despite India’s convincing six-wicket win over Australia on paper. So, there was a much more perilous situation on the field in Chennai.
Ravindra Jadeja’s outstanding performance, securing 3 wickets for just 28 runs, limited Australia to a modest total of 199. Yet, the pursuit of this target began with a historically disastrous beginning for India. They found themselves at 2 for 3 marking the first instance in ODIs. But, three of their top four batsmen were dismissed for ducks. Mitchell Starc dismissed Ishan Kishan for a first-ball duck. After a while, Josh Hazlewood’s double-wicket maiden removed captain Rohit Sharma via lbw and Shreyas Iyer with a straightforward catch at short cover.
However, from this dire situation emerged Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, two of India’s seasoned and accomplished cricketers. Their partnership of 165 runs transformed a challenging start into a comfortable victory. So, much so that although Kohli departed for 85. But, despite getting a chance & dropped at 12. Rahul positioned himself for a potential seventh ODI century.
Hazlewood’s 3-wicket haul for 38 runs remained the sole positive aspect in the second half of the match. Nevertheless, one can anticipate that most of the post-match analysis will revolve around the team’s struggle to contend with the spin expertise of Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, and R Ashwin.
After this Australia needs more patience and practice for playing spin bowling. In this ICC World Cup 2023, most pitches are spin-friendly and batting-friendly. So, you can see the match between South Africa and Sri Lanka is a big example.
