Australia’s thrilling victory over India in the first limited overs match at Vadodara was soured by a hamstring injury to reliable allrounder James Hopes, the extent of which is yet to be known.
Clutching his right leg, Hopes staggered from the field at the conclusion of his second over and did not return as his team-mates completed a four-run win by restricting the Indians to 8-288 in reply to 8-292.
They did so despite late entertainment from old tormentor Harbhajan Singh (49) and Praveen Kumar (40no) that drew a series of roars from a crowd of about 20,000 and gave Peter Siddle (1-55) only eight runs to defend in the final over.
Hopes’ distress was an unwelcome sight for the tourists, who were conscious pre-series of not losing any more players to injury with Michael Clarke (back), Nathan Bracken (knee), Callum Ferguson (knee) and Brad Haddin (finger) all convalescing.
Mitchell Johnson (2-59), who fired out five Indian batsmen on his last visit to the ground in 2007, captured the key wicket, pinning Gautam Ghambir (68) lbw with a full-pitched first ball of the batting powerplay when India were 3-167 – still a chance.
Nathan Hauritz’s (1-34) beautifully modulated spell played a key role in stalling the innings, and leaving too much to be done in the final overs against the old ball.
A series of useful batting cameos had earlier pushed the tourists to a hearty total.
Captain Ricky Ponting (74), Tim Paine (50), Cameron White (51) and Mike Hussey (73, 54 balls) notched half centuries, a collaborative effort that compensated for the lack of a central dominating batsman across the innings.
Hussey’s good touch was timely given mounting speculation about his place in the Test and one-day sides ahead of the home summer.
Indian paceman Ishant Sharma (3-50) showed glimpses of improved rhythm following his poor Champions Trophy.
It was the first international in India for several of Australia’s touring party, and they were given some idea of the noise that can shake a stadium when deafening roars accompanied a trio of early boundaries for Virender Sehwag (13).
Sehwag did not last long enough, however, to cause any real trouble for the tourists, turned around by a Brett Lee (1-28) outswinger and edging behind.
His dismissal made the ground a remarkably quiet place, and it was quieter still when a becalmed Sachin Tendulkar (14), not for the first time in his long career, chipped a catch to short cover.
From there the innings progressed in fits and starts without ever truly convincing.
There had been some new ball swing for India’s opening pair of Ashish Nehra and Kumar after Ponting won the toss, and it was with a beautifully pitched in-ducker that Nehra removed Shane Watson, lbw for five in the second over.
Paine played and missed numerous times at Kumar’s subtle movement, but in between struck the ball cleanly and soon developed a strong union with his occasional state teammate Ponting.
Ponting seemed century-bound when he became Ravindra Jadeja’s maiden international wicket, lbw on the back pad.
The rest of the innings lacked Ponting’s majesty, though White hammered with typical strength and Hussey alternated heaves with paddles.
Australian skipper Ricky Ponting was more happy about winning than frustrated by the sub-par finish by his bowlers.
“I’m happier that we won but there’s no doubt it was a big learning curve,” he said.
“There were a few players who learned some big lessons in those final overs.”
“Shane Watson is usually one of our best … or the best … bowlers in the final overs but he wasn’t today and so he’s got a bit to work on.”
Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said he was happy to have run the Australians so close and expected the remainder of the series to play out in a similar manner.
Game two is in the western city of Nagpur on Wednesday.
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