After suffering a dramatic top-order collapse, the pair of KL Rahul and Virat Kohli steadied India's run chase to take the team home by six wickets against Australia in their World Cup opener at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday, October 8.
Chasing just 200 runs to win, India were in a precarious situation up front after losing skipper Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer for ducks. Ishan was the first to be dismissed after an ambitious drive brought his downfall and was followed by the Indian captain and Shreyas who fell to Josh Hazlewood.
The sudden collapse made 200 look like a very far-fetched thought and it took a valiant effort from the former captain Virat (85) and Rahul (97*) to rescue India and propel them towards victory. The two got together in the third over of the innings and aggregated 165 runs for the fifth wicket. Their record stand took India within touching distance before Virat got dismissed in the 38th over. But Rahul kept going on and helped India secure victory. He was awarded the Player of the Match.
Earlier in the day, Australia captain Pat Cummins called it right at the toss and chose to bat first on a wicket that seemed spin-friendly. The five-time world champions lost Mitchell Marsh in the third over but were bolstered by a 69-run stand between David Warner and Steve Smith. The two experienced batters looked set and threatened to take the game away from the Indians but India clawed their way back into the contest and removed both batters to jolt the Aussie batting.
The Cummins-led side lost its way completely and succumbed to some high-quality spin bowling from India's left-arm orthodox bowler Ravindra Jadeja who claimed a three-for while conceding 28 runs in his ten-over spell. He was ably supported by Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah as the duo bagged two wickets apiece.
