In a thrilling encounter at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, India triumphed over arch-rivals Australia in their opening World Cup match. Chasing a target of 200 runs, India faced an early setback, losing key players Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, and Shreyas Iyer without a run on the board. However, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli’s resilient 165-run partnership steadied the innings. Kohli’s 85 runs were crucial in India’s recovery. Hardik Pandya’s aggressive batting, including a vital six, brought India closer to victory. KL Rahul’s unbeaten 97 and a match-winning six sealed the win for India in the 42nd over, elevating them to the 5th spot in the points table.
Rohit Sharma | India captain: Pretty exciting. Good feeling to come out on top. 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, 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. I was (nervous), you don’t want to start your innings like that, credit to the Aussies 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. That is going to be the challenge for us as a team, moving to different conditions and adapting, whoever suits the conditions will have to come and do the job. Chennai never disappoints, they love their cricket and for them to sit in that heat and come out and cheer for the team says a lot.
