Cricket World Cup: India recover from poor start to beat Australia as Virat Kohli and KL Rahul star | Cricket News
World Cup hosts India recovered from a horror start to their run chase to secure a resounding six-wicket win over Australia in Chennai.
India were reeling on 2-3 in a chase of 200 after skipper Rohit Sharma, opening partner Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer were all dismissed for ducks inside the first two overs.
However, KL Rahul (97no) and Virat Kohli (85) shared a fourth-wicket stand of 165 before Rahul ended the game with a six once Kohli was dismissed with 33 runs required.
The game could have panned out differently had Mitchell Marsh not dropped Kohli on 12 but Kohli was superb from that point on, scoring his 67th ODI fifty with Rahul notching his 16th.
Ravindra Jadeja (3-28) had earlier led a spin-bowling clinic from India, bowling Steve Smith (46) with a beauty to trigger a collapse as Pat Cummins’ side slipped from 110-2 to 119-5 and then 199 all out on a slow pitch in hot temperatures.
Jadeja, playing on his IPL home ground, ripped the heat out of the Australia innings, dismissing Smith in the 28th over and then accounting for Marnus Labuschagne (27) and Alex Carey (0) in the 30th.
The left-arm spinner was backed up by fellow slow bowlers Kuldeep Yadav (2-42) and Ravichandran Ashwin (1-34) as well as seamer Jasprit Bumrah (2-35), with Kuldeep catching David Warner (41) off his own bowling after the Australia opener had passed 1,000 runs across all Cricket World Cups.
India return to action against Afghanistan on Wednesday with Australia facing South Africa on Thursday, the side that plundered the highest score in World Cup history against Sri Lanka on Saturday when they made 428-5.
More to follow…
What’s next?
New Zealand – who thrashed defending champions England by nine wickets in Thursday’s tournament opener – meet Netherlands in Hyderabad on Monday (9.30am start).
England will look to bounce back from their loss to the Black Caps when they face Bangladesh in Dharamshala on Tuesday (6am start).
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