India vs Australia, ODI World Cup 2023: KL Rahul, Virat Kohli Help India Start Campaign With A Win

India beat Australia by six wickets to begin their ICC World Cup campaign on a positive note on Sunday.

Virat Kohli channelised his inner champion to pull the Indian team out of choppy waters with a masterly 85, which paved the way for a six-wicket victory over Australia in their opening match of the World Cup in Chennai on Sunday. Kohli found a trusted ally in uber-cool KL Rahul (97 not out off 115 balls) during their match-winning stand of 165 that eventually made the 200-run target seem like a cakewalk on a testing track although they took 41.2 overs to achieve it. Their doughty alliance came after three Indian top-order batters returned to the pavilion without troubling the scorers.

But equally responsible for India getting two points are their spinners. Ravindra Jadeja (3/28 in 10 overs) along with Ravichandran Ashwin (2/34 in 10 overs) and Kuldeep Yadav (2/42 in 10 overs) made life miserable for the Australians while bowling them out for 199 in 49.3 overs.

But Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood were incisive during the first three overs as Ishan Kishan, Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer were walked back for ducks and the scoreboard read a sorry 2/3.

The audacious Kohli, whom the Indian fans fall in love with again every day, showed the first glimpse of fightback and unfurled an elegant drive past pacer Hazlewood, a shot that was worth million dollars.

Gauging that the ball is not coming onto the bat, Kohli slightly put his front-foot across and showed full face of the bat, rather than being rooted to the crease.