Australia has recovered from the early loss of openers David Warner and Aaron Finch to move to 2-139 at the halfway mark of their run chase.
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India: MS Dhoni has already mentioned that one of Gurukeerat Singh Mann or Manish Pandey will bat in the lower-middle order.
They rotated the strike throughout the innings to keep the score moving, taking quick singles and hitting boundaries when they needed to increase the pace.
“They don’t get to see heaps of games and historically I don’t think I’ve probably scored many in the games they have, so that was very pleasing”, Bailey said.
The Rohit-Kohli combination, after building a solid foundation, tore apart an inexperienced Australian attack as their debutant duo of left-arm fast bowler Joel Paris and Scott Boland were taken to the cleaners. Apart from the disciplined Josh Hazlewood, the other bowlers took quite a beating as India continue to amass runs at will. Rohit soon got to his fourth century against Australia and India were suddenly on the front foot.
Australia batsman George Bailey says his team is looking forward to renewing their fierce rivalry with India in the upcoming five-match ODI series, starting in Perth Tuesday (07:20 UAE time).
Rohit in a video interview after the match said that runs don’t matter if the team is losing.
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.
He reached his 50 from 63 balls and went on to his century from 122 balls when India was 188-1 in the 37th over.
Mitchell Marsh (12) and Smith looked all set to complete the formalities but the skipper fell with the hosts needing two runs. Rohit Sharma cracked a fabulous 171, studded with 13 boundaries and 7 sixes.
After tormenting the Indians for not having DRS at their disposal – which would have resulted in him being given out caught behind first ball – Bailey said the pressure was on the tourists ahead of the second match at the Gabba on Friday.
India’s tour of Australia will kick off with the first of five ODIs as the two sides clash at the Western Australia Cricket Association Ground in Perth. “All over Australia you will find pitches that assist the fast bowlers, but the spinners also get a bit more bounce”.
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Sran, 23, was handed his India ODI cap by Dhoni before the toss.
