🏏Australia tour of India: 1st ODI at Mohali on 22/09/2023 D/N🏏 - Page 42

Mohammed Shami | Player of the Match: (On bowling longer spells in the heat) It depends on the captain and the game situation, but despite the heat you feel like bowling 4-5 overs with the new ball. I enjoyed the wicket of Marsh, that's a different feeling when you get the outside edge, when you control your swing nicely. It was important to hit the right lengths on this wicket, either at full pace or go slow, but bowling the right lengths were key. We've played together for a long time, so we know what needs to be done. Always enjoy when we bowl well in tandem like this.

Good luck being Rahul Dravid at this point. Today, the team’s reserve batter has scored a fifty, while the auxiliary pacer has picked up a fifer. When Rohit, Hardik and Kohli are away, the others come out to play…So how do you pick your best XI for the World Cup opener? Well, thankfully, the Indian management has two more ODIs to test out these boys, while Australia will hope for better next game as they sweat over the fitness of some of their regulars. Join us for the second ODI, for now this is Saurabh Shankar signing off on behalf of Akshay Maanay, Anurag Hegde and Vinod Kumar

The Mohali curse has been broken, India's first win over Australia at this venue since 1996. A fairly routine chase, as batting did get better in the second innings with the pitch flattening out. Shubman Gill was princely as ever, making the most of the powerplay with some eye catching strokeplay. He was fully supported by Ruturaj who took his time to get started, but motored along nicely. Both openers notched up fifties, but then Adam Zampa produced wickets off three successive overs, as he dismissed Gill and Rutu, while Iyer was run out. Things then were a bit nervy as Ishan Kishan was out trying to upper cut, but Suryakumar Yadav and KL Rahul steadied the ship. The former in particular showed great restraint, curbing his attacking instincts and playing some textbook shots to get India close to the finish line. He couldn't close out the job, but Rahul was assured at the other end as he played a captain's knock, notched up a fifty and scored the winning runs with 8 balls to spare. Over to the presentations now...

Suryakumar Yadav: I was dreaming of this type of innings when I started playing this format. Trying to bat deep and finishing the game, unfortunately couldn’t do it today but very happy with the result. I’d been wondering what had been happening for me in this format, the teams and bowlers were the same. I went back and reflected and realized I was probably rushing things a bit so I decided to play slower and take it deep. I think it’s the first time I haven’t played a sweep. This has come from the Chandu Pandit school of arts (on his straight drives). Really enjoyed watching the openers bat. Want to try and bat the same way, bat deep, try and win games for India.

Most 50-plus scores for India in an ODI run-chase

4 vs England, Indore, 2006

4 vs England, Cuttack, 2008

4 vs Australia, Mohali, 2023

- This is India’s second win against Australia in Mohali from six attempts (ODIs), the previous coming by 5 runs in November 1996.

- Before today, Australia had won six of the seven ODIs they had played at this venue, including the 1996 CWC SF against West Indies and ICC CT 2006 SF against New Zealand.

- Teams chasing have now won six of the seven ODIs in Mohali post the 2011 CWC.

Pat Cummins: Personally, happy to be back. Good to get my first game in India. A few guys batted well, few guys bowled well but overall not good enough. (On injuries) They'd probably not be ready for the second game, maybe the third game. Maxi has just arrived in India. Smith's first hit as well, and Davey was brilliant. Good to see them out there together. We've got one eye on the big tournament, but you want to set the standards early and build a good rhythm.

KL Rahul: (On captaincy) Not the first time, always happens with me. I'm used to it, I love it. I think the intensity in the afternoon was great, after Colombo this felt like heaven in the start but it was really hot and humid. It gets tough and physically challenging, but we've all worked on our fitness and that's showing on the field. We only played five bowlers, so they had to bowl 10 overs. After Shubman got out, it was a bit tricky with the set batter out. But managed to build a good partnership with Surya, need to put myself in such challenging situations. (On partnership with Surya) We kept talking about hitting good cricket shots, rotating the strike and this is something all our batters are working on. We didn't want to get bogged down, we were always on par so we wanted to take it deep.

Mohammed Shami | Player of the Match: (On bowling longer spells in the heat) It depends on the captain and the game situation, but despite the heat you feel like bowling 4-5 overs with the new ball. I enjoyed the wicket of Marsh, that's a different feeling when you get the outside edge, when you control your swing nicely. It was important to hit the right lengths on this wicket, either at full pace or go slow, but bowling the right lengths were key. (On bowling with the other pacers) We've played together for a long time, so we know what needs to be done. Always enjoy when we bowl well in tandem like this.

Ram: "With that win, are we the RANK 1 team in all formats now?" Likely to be when the rankings are updated.

Sampath Bandarupalli: Only the fifth instance of four batters scoring fifty-plus runs in an ODI innings against Australia. Second time by India after the 1987 WC game in Delhi.