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KL Rahul: (Image Source: Twitter)
A stunning knock under pressure from KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja ensured India win by five wickets in the first ODI against Australia at the Wankede Stadium on Friday, March 17. Chasing 189, Australia made Indian batters toil hard with their swing and seam but in the end, the hosts sealed the victory with 10 overs to spare.
After facing constant criticism for his poor form, Rahul saved team India with his sensible half-century. Australia smelled victory as they dismissed the batters at regular intervals at one end, but Jadeja provided excellent support for Rahul to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match ODI series.
The Aussie bowlers reduced the hosts to 16/3 in five overs with Marcus Stoinis providing the first breakthrough with the dismissal of Ishan Kishan (3 off 8). India batters, once again, struggled against left-arm pacer as they looked clueless against Mitchell Starc.
The speedster was at his best, removing Virat Kohli (4 off 9) and Suryakumar Yadav (0 off 1) in successive deliveries. Starc should also have dismissed Shubman Gill for 2 but Josh Inglis put down a catch behind the stumps. However, the right-hander could not capitalize on his second life and eventually fell to Starc by 20 runs.
Rahul, Jadeja guide India home
The stand-in-skipper joined Rahul when India was at 39/4, but just when it looked like the duo will cause danger for the visitors, Stonis broke the 44-run stand by dismissing Hardik. After that, Jadeja walked in and played calmy with Rahul and stitched a brilliant match-winning partnership. Rahul scored his 13th ODI half-century (75* off 91) in the process, while Jadeja remained unbeaten on 45 (69).
After his match-winning performance, Rahul said during the post-match presentation: "Saw three wickets fall down early, Starc was swinging the ball well and when he brings the ball back in, he is a dangerous bowler. Just tried to play normal cricketing shots. Got a few boundaries away and that settled my nerves. The talk was that there’s help on the wicket but we did not want to get into our shell and play out a certain bowler. We wanted to be positive and put the loose balls away. If we are good with out footwork, we could do well and it was fun batting with Jadeja."
Here's how Twitter reacted to Rahul's disciplined innings:
I told my friends this afternoon KL will score a 50 today, the reactions were something! Now that he has, they are all speechless 😁
— Sumit Agarwal 🇮🇳 (@sumitagarwal_IN) March 17, 2023
HE SHOULD PLAY AS WICKETKEEPER BATSMAN AT NO.6 IN WTC.
— Arka (@ARKA0432) March 17, 2023
KL Rahul in middle order gives stability to the team even the 4 wkts lost under 10 overs.
— DK (@CricCrazyDK) March 17, 2023
Excellent game.... Competitive ODI and what an excellent innings by KL under pressure team down and out and calmness showcased by Hardik and Jaddu was brilliant too I think that's the benifit of batting around MS Dhoni...Good game 🙏🙏👍👍
— Rohit Jaiswal (@RohitJa98837448) March 17, 2023
MVP for team India in ODIs, he binds with the top order and lower middle order very perfectly; this is what India has been looking for for many years—a terrific middle order batsman!#KLRahul𓃵 pic.twitter.com/HGBaby3Jhd
— Sagar Nandal (@SagarNandal14) March 17, 2023
KL bhai aisi hi khelna World Cup mein !!
— Pavan (@Pavan007pk) March 17, 2023
Dekh the hai 🌝
#KLRahul𓃵 Back to form because 24Days left for IPL 😅
— ಕನಸುಗಾರ (@Bharath69329374) March 17, 2023
Well played 👏
— Cric'O'maniac (@Naveen25979920) March 17, 2023
But pls prove us all wrong by doing the same when India is under pressure in a WC knockout