Australia's fast-bowling all-rounder Marcus Stoinis thinks the tourists' deep batting line-up might have been carried away on seeing Mitchell Marsh waltz his way to 81 in the first ODI, and fell in a heap, resulting in a five-wicket loss in the first ODI against India. At the Wankhede Stadium on Friday, Australia were cruising at 129/2, thanks to Marsh's 81 off 65 balls, including ten fours and five sixes, in a batting line-up running till number eight.
Got carried away
But a collapse of 8/59, triggered by the fast bowling duo of Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj resulted in Australia being bundled out for 188 within 36 overs on a pitch offering continuous assistance to seamers.
"To an extent, we might have gotten carried away watching Mitch bat and how well he struck them, then thinking the score might need to be higher than what was necessary.
There was a bit in the wicket. We need to be a bit better with our techniques and figure out how we're going to play that. I think KL's way of batting and blueprint looked about right," Stoinis was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
Rahul and Jadeja ensure victory
In chasing 189, India was at a precarious 83/5 in 19.2 overs, with left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc taking three wickets in a beautiful exhibition of seam bowling.
But wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul slammed an unbeaten 75 and along with Ravindra Jadeja's 45 not out, he was involved in an unbroken 108-run stand for the sixth wicket that helped India get over the line and take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Failed to read conditions
Stoinis conceded that Australia never adjusted to the conditions on the ground, something that India did through Rahul and Jadeja.
"We didn't sum up the conditions well enough and didn't score enough. We're experimenting with a few different combinations, playing eight batters," he said.
"We understand that if we're going to play eight batters, we still need to play a certain way up until the 35th over or whatever it might be, and then when the time comes we can assert some authority on that with our back-end power hitters," he added.
The second ODI of the three-match series between India and Australia will be played at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.
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