By IANS
Bangalore : Rain intervened after Sachin Tenulkar departed, without opening his account, as India chased an imposing target of 308 set by the Australians in the first one-day international (ODI) of the seven match Future Cup series here Saturday.
The feel good factor in the Indian team, which was basking in the glory of the Twenty20 win, was shattered by Australian Michael Clarke, who made his highest one-day score of 130 (132 balls, 10x4s, 3x6s) and guided his team to a challenging 307 for the loss of seven wickets in 50 overs under the flood lights at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
In reply, India were stranded at nine for the loss of one wicket in 2.4 overs when the rain gods came to give the Indian some respite.
Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir opened the innings for India. And Australian speedster Mitchell Johnson struck in the last bowl of the second over to dismiss Tendulkar leg before the wicket.
All rounder Irfan Pathan was sent in but the Baroda guy didn’t get to face a single ball as the rains came down heavily. Gambhir was batting on four.
Earlier in the day, Australian captain Adam Gilchrist won the toss and decided to bat on a surface that had a tinge of grass on it. His decision came as a surprise as the Indian bowlers tried to make full use of the conditions.
Soon the Australians were struggling at 90 for four in the 17th over.
The Indians got good movement from the pitch but were indiscipline in line and length, especially Sreesanth.
The Australian inning started in a flashy style with Gilchrist hitting Zaheer Khan through the covers in the first ball of the day. The Australian captain was starting to look indomitable as he whipped Sreesanth for another four, down the leg side, in the second over.
But the Australian captain fell to Zaheer’s trap in the third over when he went after a wayward delivery and a brilliant diving catch by Yuvraj Singh in the covers ended his innings for just 12 runs.
It was Sreesanth’s turn to strike next and the fast bowler after two wide balls in his third over produced a peach of a delivery and struck Brad Hodge’s pad to get him leg before wicket.
Opener Matthew Hayden was a mute spectator till the time he was joined by Clarke in the middle. Hayden wasn’t getting much strike but when he did find his rhythm, the burly left-handed batsman spanked the Indian bowlers to all parts of the ground and raced on to score 34 off 39 deliveries.
Hayden was slowly building up a partnership with Clarke, but Sreesanth struck again and grabbed Hayden’s wickets to reduce the Australians to 78 for three in the 15th over.
Sreesanth in the 17th over foxed Andrew Symonds (7) with a slower delivery to get him leg before wicket.
Sreesanth may have been wayward but still managed to take three wickets for 55 runs in his allotted 10 overs.
With the team struggling at 90/4, Clarke played a beautiful knock of 130, his highest score in one-dayers, to drag his team out from a precarious condition.
Clarke added 144 runs for the fifth wicket with Brad Haddin (69), which turned out to be the foundation of the Australian innings. The partnership was broken by Yuvraj Singh, who beat Haddin in flight and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni clipped the bails.
It was a fine innings under pressure by Haddin, who came in as a replacement for injured skipper Ricky Ponting.
Clarke then joined hands with James Hopes to accelerate the scoring and mesmerized the Indian bowlers with some huge hits. Hopes’ innings came to an end, at 37 runs, when he tried to hit Zaheer over long on but ended up in the hands of Tendulkar, who was just a metre away from the rope.
Clarke scampered for a run on last ball of the innings but Zaheer kept his nerves to run out the centurion.
Scoreboard:
India vs. Australia, first one-day international, Chinnasawamy Stadium
(day/night), Bangalore, Sep 29
Australia:
Adam Gilchrist c Yuvraj b Khan 12
Matthew Hayden b Sreesanth 34
Brad Hodge lbw Sreesanth 0
Michael Clarke run out (Khan) 130
Andrew Symonds lbw Sreesanth 7
Brad Haddin st Dhoni b Yuvraj Singh 69
James Hopes c Tendulkar b Khan 37
Brett Lee not out 0
Extras: (b 4, lb 1, w 11, nb 2) 18
Total: (for seven wickets in 50 overs) 307
Fall of wickets: 1-14 (Gilchrist, 2.1 overs), 2-18 (Hodge, 3.1), 3-78 (Hayden, 14.2), 4-90 (Symonds, 16.3), 5-234 (Haddin, 41.5), 6-307 (Hopes, 49.5), 7-307 (Clarke, 49.6)
Bowling:
Zaheer Khan 10-0-64-2 (1nb, 2w)
Sreesanth 10-0-55-3 (1nb, 6w)
Rudra Pratap Singh 10-0-67-0 (2w)
Irfan Pathan 8-0-38-0 (1w)
Ramesh Powar 6-1-50-0
Yuvraj Singh 6-0-28-1
Umpires: Steve Bucknor (West Indies) and Suresh Shastri (India)
Third umpire: Ameesh Saheba (India)
Match referee: Chris Broad (England)