India conjured up an amazing win over Australia in their ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 opening match in Chennai on October 8. This set them off to a winning start in their World Cup campaign.
Australia had opted to bat first after winning the toss and put up 199 runs. Steve Smith (46) and David Warner (41) were the top scorers, while Ravindra Jadeja (3/28) was the best bowler from India.
In response, Josh Hazlewood removed Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer for ducks, and Mitchell Starc dismissed Ishan Kishan for a duck.
But then Virat Kohli (85) and KL Rahul (97*) added 165 runs to put India on the winning path. KL Rahul won the game for India by hitting a six with 6 wickets in hand and 52 balls to spare.
CWC 2023: "The way he's batting augers well for India"- Sunil Gavaskar hails KL Rahul's masterclass
After the winning moment, KL Rahul was given a tight hug by Rohit Sharma, who was overflowing with emotions. He looked like had the hug with Rahul gone for 2 more seconds, tears would’ve flowed from the Indian captain’s eyes.
Rohit knew how important the knocks played by KL Rahul and Virat Kohli were as they took India from 2/3 to victory.
Check the moment here:
After the match, Rohit Sharma lauded both the batters in the post-match presentation.
He said: “I was (nervous), you don’t want to start your innings like that, credit to the Aussie's bowlers as they bowled in good areas but some loose shots as well, when you have that kind of target you want to score as much as possible in the powerplay, but credit to Virat and KL on how they went about the chase.
It was a good game to start the tournament for us. I thought it was magnificent, especially the fielding and we saw the effort from everyone today, In conditions like this it would be tough. Our bowlers used the conditions perfectly and we knew there would be assistance for everyone, even the seamers got some reverse, the spinners bowled in the nice areas and all in all, it was a great effort.”
