Australian openers David Warner and Aaron Finch did not just become their country's second-most prolific opening pair in one-day internationals as the duo added their ninth century-plus stand to keep the visitors in control in the opening game of the three-match series against India at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. An hour after achieving the milestone. Finch and Warner continued with their thorough dominance against the Indian bowlers to stitch the highest-ever opening partnership in India while also becoming the most prolific opening pair against India.
With six into the sightscreen against Kuldeep Yadav by Finch, the pair brought up their century stand in the game against India. While Warner stood on 44 off 36 deliveries, Finch moved to 49 off 42 deliveries.
The pair now have nine century-plus stands in ODIs, moving to the second spot after surpassing Adam Gilchrist and Mark Waugh. They now only stand behind the pair of Gilchrist and Mathew Hayden who has 16 century-plus stands in ODIs for Australia.
Continuing with their attacking game, the pair surpassed the English duo of Alaistair Cook and C Kieswetter to become the highest-scoring opening pair in India. The English pair had pulled off a stand of 129 runs back in October 2011 in Kolkata.
On surpassing 150 runs in their partnership, the pair joined Gilchrist and Mark Waugh in list of most 150-plus stands for Australia in ODIs, while also joining the Indian pairs of Rohit Sharma-Virat Kohli (against Sri Lanka) and Rohit-Dhawan (against Australia) in having most 150-plus stands against a single opponent - the three pairs have three such stands to their name.
Talking about their partnership against India, Finch and Warner have the highest partnership average among pairs who have batted together in at least 10 innings against India. They average 97.22 in 10 innings with three century and four fifty-run stands.
Talking about the match, Australia made a strong start to the innings as the opening pair of Warner and Finch stitched a fifty-plus stand inside the powerplays to stay ahead of the required run rate before taking their score past 110 in 15 overs.
India finished with 255 runs in 49.1 overs with Shikhar Dhawan as their top scorer. His valiant 74 along with KL Rahul's 47 helped India add 121 runs for the second wicket before the hosts suffered a middle-order wobble to add only 134 runs more in the remaining overs.
