Australia chase down India’s 309 in first ODI

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.

Shikhar Dhawan kept his place but this will be a major test for the opener.

Virat Kohli also showed his trademark class with 91 runs of his own.

“Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Wade and James Faulkner can all either capitalise on a fast start from dashing David Warner and Aaron Finch, or resurrect an innings that has gone awry at the top”, he said.

En route to his fifth ODI century, Smith smashed 11 boundaries and two sixes while Bailey brought up his third hundred, smashing seven fours and two sixes. Rohit then broke Kohli’s record of highest individual total at WACA for an Indian against Australia, of 77 runs and then soon became the first Indian to score an ODI century at Perth.

Experienced spin-bowling all-rounders R. Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja will complete the five-pronged bowling attack for India alongside the three seamers.

The Rohit-Kohli combination tore apart an inexperienced Australian attack as their debutant duo of left-arm fast bowler Joel Paris (0/53 in 8 overs) and right arm medium fast Scott Boland (0/74 in 10 overs) were taken to the cleaners. Faulkner took two wickets while Hazlewood accounted for one. Umesh Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were there too, but nothing significant came from them in terms of contribution.

Bailey and Smith both struck centuries and milked the Indian bowling without any fuss.

The MS Dhoni-led side ended up losing the opening encounter of the five-match series by 5 wickets. South Africa won the T20 series by 2-0, then they went on to win the One Day series by 3-2 and finally India made a comeback and beat South Africa in the test series as they won it by 3-0. Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, and Rohit Sharma will add steel to the batting and this will be a real challenge for the trio and a great opportunity for them to mature.

The pair stole runs by maintain first-class running between the wickets.

Before the teams move on to Brisbane for the second game on January 15, Bleacher Report has picked out the winners and losers from the series opener.