Australia defeat India by 34 runs in opening match of ODI series, take 1-0 lead
Sydney, Jan 12 (IBNS): Despite Rohit Sharma's century and MS Dhoni's crafty 51 runs knock, Australia defeated India by 34 runs in the opening ODI match of the series here on Saturday.
Shikhar Dhawan (0), Virat Kohli (3) and Rayudu (0) failed miserably and as they were dismissed early, India were reduced to 3-4 at the beginning of the innings.
Australia posted competitive 288 runs for the loss of five wickets in their quota of fifty overs and then successfully defended the total by restricting the visitors at 254 runs for the loss of nine.
Rohit Sharma (133) and Dhoni tried to rebuild the innings after initial jolts but Australia bowlers were successful in pulling the match towards the favour of the home side.
Sharma hammered 10 boundaries and six over boundaries in his gutsy knock as he confirmed that he is a good touch ahead of the New Zealand tour and then the World Cup.
Dhoni, who completed 10,000 tuns in ODIs, played a slow knock but added 51 runs which helped in the rebuilding process.
Apart from Bhuvneshwar Kumar (29*) the rest of the Indian batting lineup crumbled miserably in the match.
After Test series defeat, Australia, under the leadership of their limited overs skipper Aaron Finch, came back strongly to take 1-0 lead in the series.
Richardson picked up four wickets for Australia.
Winning the toss and batting first, Australia set 289 as the target for India to win the first One Day International (ODI) match at Sydney Cricket Ground here on Saturday.
Australia scored 288/5 in 50 overs.
After losing two wickets within 50 runs, Usman Khawaja (59) and Shaun Marsh (54) together added 92 for the third wicket.
Peter Handsomb is the highest scorer for Australia with his 73-run innings. Marcus Stoinis scored unbeaten 47 off 43 balls which helped the hosts to go past 280.
Kuldeep Yadav and Bhuvneshwar Kumar shared two wickets each while all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja picked the wicket of Khawaja.
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