Hardik Pandya's brutal counter-attack and other talking points from India's win over Australia

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  • A superb all-round show by Hardik Pandya was the highlight of India's victory.

    India beat Australia by 26 runs in the first of the five ODIs scheduled between the two sides at Chennai on Sunday to take a 1-0 lead in the series.

    India skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat first on a Chennai wicket which aided the seamers early-on. Aussie pacer Nathan Coutler-Nile tore into the hosts’ top order with three quick wickets as India were reduced to 11-3.

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  • Some power-hitting from Hardik Pandya and MS Dhoni down the order helped the Men in Blue register a commanding total of 281 in their 50 overs.

    Rain played spoil-sport during the innings break delaying the start of Australia’s reply to India’s total. In the end, with the amount of time lost to the foul weather, the game was reduced to 21-overs leaving the visitors a target of 164 according to the Duckworth-Lewis method.

    In the end, an all-round show from Hardik Pandya saw the visitors restricted 137-9 in 21 overs handing India a comfortable win.

    On a day filled with vital contributions from  number of players, we look at the key talking points.

    Nathan Coulter-Nile destroys the Indian top-order

    The 29-year-old pacer is a familiar face to the Indians with his extensive experience playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

    However, when much of the threat was to come from Pat Cummins, it was Coulter-Nile who stole the headlines early into the series after picking up three wickets in quick succession to leave India in a precarious spot at 11-3.

    Coulter-Nile made the most of the early help on offer to the seamers as he got the ball to swing away from the right-handed beautifully on a constant basis.

    The first of his victims was Ajinkya Rahane who was opening the batting in the absence of Shikhar Dhawan. Rahane perished while attempting a drive on a wide out-swinging delivery to be caught behind comfortably by Matthew Wade.

    Next to go was skipper Kohli who fell to a delivery similar to the one which got Rahane. The batting maestro was caught brilliantly by Glen Maxwell at backward point after skying an attempt to drive through the covers.

    New man Manish Pandey was the third victim of Coulter-Nile and he too fell to an out-swinger. Pandey could only muster a faint edge behind to Wade to a much fuller-delivery from the Aussie pacer .

    Coulter-Nile’s early burst had taken the winds of out India’s much vaunted batting-order giving the Aussies the a firm-grip on the game.

    Hardik Pandya’s brutal counter-attack

    When Hardik Pandya walked onto the crease, India were in a spot of bother at 64-4 with the top-order back in the pavilion. The 23-year-old is known to be an explosive hitter of the cricket ball with defending and building an innings not known to be his style.

    On Sunday though, Pandya started cautiously as he rotated the strike on a constant basis to build a steady partnership with MS Dhoni.

    It wouldn’t be too long though before the Indian all-rounder would bring out his trademark blows and he picked Australia’s leg-spinner Adam Zampa as his target.

    It was Pandya’s counter-attack in the 39th over in particular which changed the entire momentum of the match. The right-hander hit three huge sixes in succession before taking 24 runs from the over to send the Indian fans into delirium at the M.A Chidambaram stadium.

    Zampa would have his man in his next-over but not before Pandya had put on a superb show with his 66-ball 83 which included five mammoth sixes and an equal amount of boundaries.

    Australia’s top-order mirrors India innings

    With an in-form David Warner and Steve Smith in their top-order, much more was expected from the Aussie in a relatively easier chase of 164 runs in 21 overs.

    However Australia’s chase began in the worst way possible. Debutant Hilton Cartwright opened the batting with Warner but he had a night to forget when he was clean-bowled by a skiddy Jasprit Bumrah delivery which kept a tad low.

    Smith’s unorthodox technique of flicking deliveries from outside off-stump to the on-side has served him very well in his career so far but it would be his downfall at Chennai after he attempted to do the same to a Pandya good-length delivery on middle-stump.

    The ball straightened just a bit to take the top-edge of Smith’s willow before Bumrah pulled off a difficult chance at short fine-leg.

    Travis Head, being groomed for important number four position in the batting-order did not make the best case for himself when he slashed early to a Pandya knuckle-ball to gift a simple chance to Dhoni behind the stumps.

    With the brunt of the responsibility of the chase now falling to Warner, it was a bit disappointing when he could not make the most of a good start.

    The left-handed batsman was caught-behind by Dhoni off a Kuldeep Yadav delivery to leave Australia hanging at 35-4 and handing all the initiative back to the Indians. It was a collapse the visitors would not be able to recover from in the end as India ran out comfortable victors.

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