Team India locked horns against Australia in its opening game of the World Cup 2023 on Sunday (October 8). After opting to bat first, the men in yellow lost Mitchell Marsh early but then the duo David Warner and Steve Smith stitched a vital partnership of 69 runs for the second wicket.
Just when they started to look dangerous, India's spin trio of Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja took control of the proceedings. Jadeja especially threatened most of the times with his tight line and reaped rewards eventually. While it was Kuldeep Yadav who dismissed Warner and broke the partnership, the left-arm spin of Jadeja stunned the Aussie middle-order to leave them struggling at 119/5 from being 110/2 at one stage.
His delivery to castle Smith was a ripper as the ball landed on the leg-stump and beat the batter's defence to hit the top of off-stump. Only the second time that Jadeja has managed to dismiss the former Australia captain but the brerakthrough came at the perfect time for India.
Jadeja sent back Marnus Labuschagne and Alex Carey in the same over with the former looking to slogsweep and edging the ball to KL Rahul who took a brilliant catch. On the other hand, Carey completely missed an incoming delivery to get pinned in front of the stumps to bag a second-ball duck.
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Playing XIs:
Australia (Playing XI): David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Alex Carey(w), Cameron Green, Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
