ODI World Cup 2023: India scored 240 runs against Australia

Batting first, India scored 240 runs in the Cricket World Cup final. Pat Cummins won the toss and put India into bat first. Both teams did not make any changes to their playing 11s from the semi-finals. Here is a recap of the first innings.

Rohit goes big in powerplay, Australia takes two wickets

Mitchell Starc opening the bowling found some swing early in the innings. Rohit Sharma did what he has been doing in the powerplay and took the attack on the Aussie bowlers. The Indian skipper struck two fours in the second over off Josh Hazlewood’s bowling. Rohit smashed a six and a four in the fourth over as well continuing with his aggressive approach. Starc drew the first blood by dismissing Shubman Gill in the fifth over. Rohit struck another six in the same over. 

Virat Kohli after scoring just three runs in his first eight balls struck three consecutive fours in the seventh over off Starc’s bowling. Glenn Maxwell came into the attack in the eighth over replacing Hazlewood. Kohli smashed the Australian all-rounder for a four. In his following over, Maxwell was struck for a six and a four by the Indian skipper. Maxwell had the last laugh and dismissed the Indian skipper in the last over of the powerplay. Shreyas Iyer smashed a four to end the powerplay. India ended the powerplay with 80 runs on the board for the loss of two wickets.

Australia take control of the match

Cummins bowling his second over dismissed Iyer right after the powerplay as India lost two wickets in quick succession. Adam Zampa came into the attack in the 12th over. Zampa and Cummins bowled in tandem. Both bowlers did not seem to pose any trouble to Kohli and KL Rahul but did not offer any easy runs. Kohli and Rahul scored only 22 runs in six overs (12-17). Maxwell came back into the attack in the 18th over for a one-over spell and was replaced by Mitchell Marsh. Pat Cummins kept changing his bowlers during this phase with Maxwell, Marsh and Travis Head bowling some overs to fill up the quota of the fifth over. 

Zampa came back into the attack in the 26th over. Kohli completed his fifth consecutive half-century. Rahul struck his and this partnership’s first boundary in the 27th over off Maxwell’s bowling. This boundary came after 97 balls. Cummins replaced Maxwell in the 29th over and made an instant impact. The Australian skipper dismissed Kohli with just his third ball of the spell. Kohli scored 54 runs in 63 balls hitting four fours. Ravindra Jadeja walked in to bat instead of Suryakumar Yadav. 

Australia again take quick wickets

Kohli’s wicket restricted the rate of scoring for the Indians as they managed to score only 16 runs in the next four overs (30-33). Head came back into the attack in the 34th over and found a great deal of turn. Rahul completed his half-century in 86 balls in the 35th over having hit just one four. Head was once again replaced after just a solitary over this time by Hazlewood. In his first over of the spell, he made an impact by dismissing Ravindra Jadeja. Jadeja scored nine runs in 21 balls.

Maxwell came back again for another spell and gave just one run his first over. Hazlewood too bowled a quiet three-run over from the opposite end. Zampa replaced Maxwell after just one over. Zampa’s over went for 10 runs as Suryakumar struck the first boundary after more than 70 balls.

Going into the final 10 overs, India had 197 runs on the board for the loss of five wickets. Starc came back into the attack in the 42nd over and made an instant impact by dismissing Rahul on the the third ball. Rahul scored 66 runs in 107 balls hitting a solitary boundary. Mohammed Shami opened his account with a four on the second ball he faced. His stay didn’t last long as Starc in his eighth over dismissed the Indian pacer. Zampa in his final over dismissed Jasprit Bumrah.