Team India registered a comprehensive five-wicket victory over Australia in the first game of the three-ODI series at Mohali on Friday (September 22).
Invited to bat first, Australia posted 276/10 in their stipulated 50 overs. David Warner was top scorer with 53-ball 52 while Josh Inglis (45) and Steve Smith (41) chipped in with handy contributions.
Pacer Mohammad Shami starred with the ball for India, claiming five wickets by conceding 51 runs in his 10 overs.
In reply, the Men in Blue got off to a fantastic start as the duo of Shubman Gill and Ruturaj Gaikwad added 142 runs for the opening wicket.
Adam Zampa drew the first blood for Australia by dismissing Gaikwad for 71 (77 balls). Shreyas Iyer, who was playing his first game after recovering from back spasm, got run out for just 3 while Zampa also removed Gill for 74 (63 balls) to reduce the hosts to 151/3.
With Kishan’s dismissal on 18, India found themselves struggling at 185/4. Amid the pressure situation, stand-in skipper KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav added 80 runs for the fifth wicket to put the home team on the brink of victory.
While Suryakumar threw his wicket away after scoring 50 off 49 balls, Rahul stayed unbeaten on 58 from 63 balls to take India over the line with eight deliveries to spare.
With this victory, India pipped arch-rivals Pakistan to become the No. 1 side in the ICC Men’s ODI Team Rankings. India also became the numero uno team across all formats, having already occupied the pole position in Tests and T20Is.
This is only the second time in men's cricketing history that a side has achieved the No.1 ranking across formats. Before this, only South Africa had accomplished the feat back in August 2012.
For their stunning display with both bat and ball in the first ODI, the Indian team received rich praise from the cricket fraternity on social media platform X.
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