Tuesday 12 January 2016

Cricket:Steve Smith leads Australia to five-wicket win over India in first ODI


Rohit Sharma's unbeaten 171 from 163 balls proved in vain as Steve Smith steered Australia to a five-wicket win over India in the first one-day international of the five match-series at the WACA.

Sharma thumped 13 fours and seven sixes as he amassed the highest score by a visiting batsman in Australia - beating Sir Viv Richards' 153no in 1979 - with the opener sharing a 207-run stand with Virat Kohli (91) for the second wicket as India posted 309-3.

However, the hosts chased down their target with four balls to spare as captain Smith (149) hit his highest ODI total and former skipper George Bailey (112) also notched a hundred during a third-wicket partnership of 242 in Perth.

Australia made an early breakthrough when Shikhar Dhawan (nine) top-edged Josh Hazlewood (1-41) to local boy Mitch Marsh at deep backward square leg in the seventh over with 36 on the board.


However, Sharma and Kohli then gave debuting home pacemen Scott Boland (0-74) and Joel Paris (0-53) a difficult introduction to international cricket during their 37.5 overs in tandem.

Sharma - the only man to score two ODI double tons, including the highest score in the format of 264 against Sri Lanka in Kolkata in 2014 - brought up his ninth ODI century and third against the hosts from 122 deliveries, while Kohli procured his maiden ODI fifty against Australia from 61.

MS Dhoni (18) promoted himself to No 4 once Kohli clubbed James Faulkner (2-60) to long-on fielder Aaron Finch in the 45th over, with Ravindra Jadeja adding an unbeaten 10 after Dhoni was caught one-handed by Boland off Faulkner as India biffed 55 runs from the final four overs.

Australia's run chase got off to a poor start when Finch (eight) and David Warner (five) were dismissed by India debutant Barinder Sran (3-56), a man with just eight List A games to his name, within the first five overs, Finch out caught and bowled before Warner hit the 23-year-old to Kohli at mid-off.

Bailey should also have exited first ball, with HotSpot showing the batsman had gloved Sran behind, but the Tasmanian made the most of his let-off, collecting his third ton in ODI cricket off 106 balls and ending his innings with seven fours and two sixes.

Smith, who plundered a century in Australia and India's previous ODI meeting in the semi-finals of the 2015 World Cup, secured his fifth three-figure score from 97 deliveries, and continued to impress after Bailey and Glenn Maxwell (six) clobbered Ravichandran Aswhin (2-68) into the deep.

The Australia captain fell at the start of the final over, pouched by Kohli at short cover off Sran after striking 11 boundaries and two maximums, leaving Marsh (12no) - who will be rested for the second ODI at the Gabba and replaced in the squad by John Hastings - and Faulkner (1no) to seal the victory.

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