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Following his side's six-wicket loss to India in their ICC Cricket World Cup campaign opener, Australia captain Pat Cummins said that his team was at least 50 runs short of an ideal total, adding that it was not at all ideal to drop a catch of Virat Kohli.
An icey and calm partnership between Virat Kohli and KL Rahul helped India manage to secure a six-wicket victory over Australia at Chennai's Chepauk stadium to kickstart their ICC Cricket World Cup campaign with a win. In his innings, Virat was dropped by Mitchell Marsh when he was at 12. That dropped catch eventually cost the Aussies the match as Virat played a match-winning knock and had a big partnership with KL Rahul that brought Men in Blue back into the game. "At least 50 odd (short with the bat). It was tough, trying to defend anything under 200. It was a really good bowling attack and their spinners made it tough work out there. I was not too upset (with just two spinners), we had 20 overs of spin but some more runs on the board would have made the difference. I have already forgotten about it (the drop catch), it happens, 4/10 would have been a dream start. Not ideal, especially for his calibre. He (Hazlewood) is a class bowler and poses a lot of questions, stays in that area and was fantastic today. We have to review this one, absolutely a tough surface, but what if we are up against it then what to do we do differently. Just one game out of nine, not too much to ponder about but there are some areas we need to get better. No (on changing his toss decision)," said Starc in his post-match presentation. Coming to the WC match between India and Australia, Australia lost Mitchell Marsh for a duck, but opener David Warner (41 in 52 balls with six fours) and Steve Smith (46 in 71 balls with five fours) helped the Aussies recover with their 69-run second-wicket partnership. Marnus Labuschagne (27) tried to take the Aussie innings forward with Smith, but following Smith's dismissal, Australia faced a collapse. The spin trio of Ravindra Jadeja (3/28), Kuldeep Yadav (2/42) and Ravichandran Ashwin (1/34) wreaked havoc on Australia's line-up of recognised batters while the pace trio of Jasprit Bumrah (2/35), Mohammed Siraj (1/26) and Hardik Pandya (1/28) removed the lower order, sinking Australia from 110/3 to 199 all out in 49.3 overs. Mitchell Starc (28) tried to help the Aussies play the full quota of 50 overs, but he failed. In the chase of 200, India lost Ishan Kishan, skipper Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer for ducks, leaving India at 2/3. Then a 165-run stand between Virat (85 in 116 balls with six fours) and KL Rahul (97* in 115 balls with eight fours and two sixes) helped India secure a six-wicket win. Josh Hazlewood (3/38) was the best bowler for Australia. (ANI)
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