Australia’s form slump in the lead-up to the World Cup has continued with a five-wicket loss to India in the first one-day international at Mohali.
After paceman Mohammed Shami’s career-best 5-51 restricted Australia to 276, India raised victory with eight balls to spare at Inderjit Singh Bindra Stadium on Friday (Saturday AEST) to roar back to the top of the world rankings.
Openers Shubman Gill (74) and Ruturaj Gaikwad (71) laid a wonderful platform before acting captain KL Rahul (58no) finished the tourists off by lofting Sean Abbott for a four and a six.
It was Australia’s fourth straight ODI defeat after finishing their recent tour of South Africa with three successive beltings by 100-plus runs to concede that series 3-2.
Seven Australians scored 29 or higher but none kicked on when they were set. David Warner (52), Josh Inglis (45), the returning Steve Smith (41), Marnus Labuschagne (39), Cameron Green (31) and Marcus Stoinis (29) all fell after doing the early hard yards.
“A lot of guys got starts,” said Inglis.
“If one of us goes on to get 80 or 100 and we get to 300, it makes that chase a lot more difficult there at the end.”
Shami’s career-best five-for made him chief destroyer, nicking off Mitchell Marsh (4) in the first over, bowling Smith with a magnificent in-ducker and then tearing into the lower order.
In reply, Gill and Gaikwad crunched 142 for the first wicket before a mini-collapse of 3-9 was averted by acting captain Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav (50), who added 80 for the fifth wicket.
Australia’s batting cracks will need to be ironed out quickly with the World Cup fast approaching.
“Throughout the South African series, we had really good starts,” Inglis said. “We got off to flyers in a lot of the games.
Shubman Gill and Ruturaj Gaikwad run between the wickets as Marcus Stoinis looks on. (Photo by Pankaj Nangia/Getty Images)
“We spoke about building those partnerships and making them really long and give our hitters a good crack at it towards the end, rather than them having to come in at the 30th over and construct an innings.
“That’s what we do really well when we’re playing good cricket.”
Inglis pressed his own case for World Cup selection with his well-constructed knock.
With Alex Carey the likely preferred gloveman, Inglis believes he can play a role as a specialist batter.
“In the past, I have played purely as a batsman,” he said. “I quite enjoy my fielding so there’s no issue with that at all.
“I’m just trying to string some games together and put in some performances that will make them have to pick me almost.”
One bright spot was the return from an elbow injury of skipper Pat Cummins, who finished with 1-44 in his first match since the Ashes.
“I’m happy I’m back,” said Cummins, who expects pace spearhead Mitchell Starc and allrounder Glenn Maxwell to miss Sunday’s match at Indore but to be available for the third game at Rajkot next Wednesday.
“My body feels good – I used the break to freshen up and get a bit of strength in. I feel in a really good place.”
The victory moved India to the top of the ODI world rankings ahead of Pakistan as they look to retain pole position heading into a home World Cup.
With India already occupying the top spot in both the Test and T20 standings, it is only the second time in men’s cricket history that a nation has achieved the No.1 ranking across all formats, with South Africa last doing so in August 2012.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
It's time Aaron Hardie scored a run. I wonder if Andrew McDonald has met him yet.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Nah...Cam ran almost 2 lengths of the pitch on that second run. Inglis has to run. He ran with no urgency.
redbackfan
Roar Rookie
Yeah, you are right, sorry 13th man
13th Man
Roar Rookie
Poor running on both ends. 90% of run outs have some blame to go either way, Inglis turned him back but it was a poor call to begin with.
redbackfan
Roar Rookie
Oh come on, green running to the danger end calls it, inglis takes a few steps then turns his back on green who makes it three quarters down the pitch. Thats as bad a burning as ive ever seen.
13th Man
Roar Rookie
That run out was as much cam’s fault as Inglis’
Arnab Bhattacharya
Roar Guru
Jadeja is a brilliant Test cricketer. Poor ODI player. Batted at 7 the majority of his ODI career and he has a career SR in the mid 80s.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
I'm getting that way. There may be a whole family shift back to SA soon ... maybe
Dougs
Roar Rookie
Coromandel Valley. I think. I'm old Rowdy. It's hard to be completely accurate with this stuff. The hills, mate, the hills.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Whereabouts? I lived at Littlehampton for 6 years
jammel
Roar Rookie
I've always been a massive fan of Axar. Including with the bat. I am surprised however with your comments on Jadeja.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
" Clown"?
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
He has a superb technique. He also top scored with 71 in the previous innings. I suspect you don't watch much cricket.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
What was worrying was how difficult it looked for Australia to score and how easy for India, esp in the first 20 overs. But was the dew a factor? Would hope we don’t have Stoinis and Abbott bowling too many overs early in matches, if at all.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Didn’t get out because of technique. Not perfect, but it was a very good ball. He has a much better defensive technique than Head, who doesn’t really have one, but it doesn’t matter too much usually in ODI#
redbackfan
Roar Rookie
Inglis again, as your recent article.. ran out Green with a shocking selfish runout, dropped Gaekwad who made another 50 and put the game out of reach, and averages under 30 still “looked good “ ..jog on clown
DTM
Roar Rookie
Perhaps I'm a little influenced by Jadeja's flair? I looked back at the raw stats since Covid and it's interesting. Batting: Jadeja 177 runs - average 22.15, SR 57.5 Patel 300 runs - average 30, SR 106.0 Bowling Jadeja 90 overs 13/411 - average 31.6, economy 4.57 RPO Patel 100.3 overs 13/493 - average 37.9, economy 4.9 RPO I didn't dig too deeply and stats only give a guide but an argument could be made either way. Jadeja's strike rate of just 57.5 is clearly not good enough at number 7.
DTM
Roar Rookie
Sorry Tempo, previous performances are no indication of future success. Surely, if we were experimenting some of Johnson, Hardie, Sangha and Ellis would have been in this team. We know what Smith, Labuschagne and Green can do - they did it here (111 off 161 balls). We can maybe have 2 of those in the side but not 3. I'm not concerned about the results of these warm up matches, I'm concerned about the form of the players - and none look in great form. I know we are still 2 weeks away from the first game and it's along tournament but I'd like to see at least one player looking the goods.
Arnab Bhattacharya
Roar Guru
Jadeja is a passenger in ODI cricket. Throw an off spinner to him and he can't get off strike nor hit boundaries. I don't remember Jadeja winning India a run chase with the bat at all. Whenever the required run rate goes over 8, it's game over. Axar is a similar profile to Jadeja and has outshone him in the format yet he hardly gets promoted over Jadeja with bat or ball. Jadeja is still living off his one good tournament in 2013. Hardik Pandya injuring his back revived Jadeja's white ball career in 2018. And that was terrible news for India in the long term scheme of things. He's played ODI cricket for 15 years or so. Can't remember a memorable match winning knock with the bat or a good spell with the ball from Jadeja at least in the past decade.
DTM
Roar Rookie
Spot on. Can't see us making the semis.