Adelaide ODI: Kohli’s unbeaten 90 lifts India to 188/3

It can be easily expected that both the teams are going to give chances to youngsters for the series.

India’s bowlers shared the wickets around with Bumrah finishing with three for 23 and Ashwin, Jadeja and Hardik Pandya picking up two apiece. Dhawan replaced seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar for the series as he got ruled out due to a fractured left thumb. Shaun Tait bowled consistently at 150 kms/hr but Sharma looked undeterred. The Mumbai batsman raced to 31 in a mere 20 before being caught at the edge of the circle off Shane Watson. He made 41 off 34 balls before he was rattled by Faulkner in the last over.

“The run rate was up around 10-an-over like it was for most of the first 12-13 overs”.

Ahead of the first Twenty20 global against Australia on Tuesday, Indian team director Ravi Shastri on Monday heaped praise on limited overs specialist and experienced batsman Yuvraj Singh, terming him as an impact player, match-winner and someone whose record speaks for itself.

“So it was my fault and I’ve just got to be better next time”.

It was an inspiring bowling effort by the tourists after their repeated failures to defend 300-plus totals in the preceding one-day series, which Australia won 4-1. “At the moment, we’ll wait and see how he goes in the T20 format”, he said. The Indian spin duo proved to be the difference between the 2 sides as the Australian’s could not keep up the pace.

Smith had been guiding Australia into a strong position, chasing India’s imposing 188/3, when he mis-timed a push down the pitch from Ravi Jadeja’s bowling and was caught by Kohli at mid-off. For him [Raina] to come in and play like that in his very first game was brilliant. He required 11 balls to complete a legitimate over where gave away 19 runs.

Nehra and Bumrah then finished off the tail and bowled out Australia for 151.

After losing the ODI series to Australia, India is all set to play 3 T20 Internationals Down Under.

Australia’s 17-man squad means there are options available, with the Aussies willing to rotate their line-up as preparations for the T20 World Cup become increasingly acute.

“I really like playing here, would like to take the pitch to everywhere I go”.

While Kohli’s gesture suggested that he wasn’t impressed with Smith’s chatter, even fans seemed to believe that the live mike chat led to the Australian batsman’s dismissal as the hosts lost the match by 37 runs.

Kohli, as usual was quite pumped coming out to field after his scintillating innings.