Australia suffered a comprehensive six-wicket defeat at the hands of India in their opening World Cup 2023 match at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Sunday (October 8).
Asked to bowl first, the hosts bundled out Australia for a paltry 199 in 49.3 overs. It was a spin-friendly track and the Australian batters found it difficult to deal with the Indian tweakers.
The spin troika of Ravindra Jadeja (3-28), Kuldeep Yadav (2-42) and R Ashwin (1-34) bagged six scalps among them, while the pace attack featuring Jasprit Bumrah (2-35), Mohammed Siraj (1-26 in 6.3 overs) and Hardik Pandya (1-28 in 3 overs) shared the remaining four wickets.
Speaking after the game, Steve Smith admitted that the Australian batters failed to get on top of the Indian spinners on a tacky Chepauk surface.
"All their spinners bowled really nicely. Obviously, they had the wicket to suit as well," Smith said in the mixed zone.
"It was challenging against the spin since they are all very quality spinners. They really worked well together, and we struggled to get on top of them."
Chasing 200 to win, the Men in Blue were reduced to 2/3 in just two overs as the trio of Ishan Kishan, Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer bagged a duck.
However, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul rose to the occasion for India, adding 165 runs for the fourth wicket to put Australia on the backfoot. While Kohli got out after scoring 85 off 116 balls, Rahul stayed unbeaten on 97 off 115 balls to take India home with 52 deliveries to spare.
"It was game on. Unfortunately, we couldn't take it. Virat and Rahul played with a lot of composure. They played really smart cricket," Smith stated.
"It wasn't a kind of wicket where you could just muscle it and hit boundaries everywhere. Since they were chasing only 200, they could take a bit more time, just play themselves in, which they probably needed to after being three down early on and build a partnership that they did really well."
Steve Smith, who was Australia’s top-scorer with a 46-run knock, also acknowledged that 200 was a below-par target despite the pitch being difficult for batters.
"It was a challenging wicket, and we also saw a fair bit of spin taking place, along with a bit of movement for the seam bowlers off the cracks. So, obviously, it was difficult.
"200 was a little bit under par. Had we gone up and posted 250, we would have been in for an interesting game.
"Obviously, the dew came in the evening, making it a bit easier to bat. We can't predict it, but we had three early wickets and also could have had possibly a fourth."
Reflecting on his knock, Smith said: "I thought I was playing quite nicely. I had to sort of work my way through to keep the runs coming on this track.
"Felt like I was moving along nicely, hitting a few nice drives to the fast bowlers and spinners. But, unfortunately, failed to make a bigger one."
Australia’s next World Cup match is scheduled against South Africa in Lucknow on Thursday (October 12).
(With PTI Inputs)
