Rain plays spoilsport, Australia cruises to 7-wicket win over India in ODI opener

Perth (The Uttam Hindu) : The Indian team suffered a 7-wicket defeat in the first match of the three-match ODI series against Australia. Australia was set a target of 131 runs under the Duckworth-Lewis method. Captain Mitchell Marsh's unbeaten 46 helped Australia reach 131 for 3 in 21.1 overs.

Australia had a poor start in their chase. They lost Travis Head (8 runs) and Matt Short (8 runs) early. However, Marsh and wicketkeeper-batsman Josh Phillippe then laid the foundation for victory with a 55-run partnership for the third wicket. Phillippe was dismissed for 37 runs off 29 balls, including two sixes and three fours. Renshaw remained unbeaten on 21 runs off 24 balls. Marsh remained unbeaten on 46 runs off 52 balls, including three sixes and two fours.

For India, Arshdeep Singh, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar took 1 wicket each. Earlier, after losing the toss and opting to bat, the Indian team scored 136 runs at the loss of 9 wickets in 26 overs. Due to repeated rains, the match was reduced to 26 overs instead of 50 overs. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who were playing international cricket after almost seven months, both flopped. Rohit Sharma was out after scoring 8 runs in 14 balls. Virat Kohli was out on 8 balls without opening his account.

KL Rahul scored 38 runs in 31 balls with the help of 2 sixes and 2 fours. Whereas Axar Patel scored 31 runs in 38 balls. It was because of these two that Team India could reach 136. Shreyas Iyer was out after scoring 11 runs and Washington Sundar was out after scoring 10 runs. Nitish Kumar Reddy scored unbeaten 19 runs in 11 balls with the help of 2 sixes. For Australia, Starc-Nath Ellis took 1-1 wickets and Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Owen and Matthew Kunhman took 2-2 wickets.