PERTH: The grand comeback party of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma endured a quick 22-ball ending, and their lowkey outing reflected in India’s seven-wicket defeat against Australia in the rain-affected first ODI here on Sunday.
Asked to bat first, India laboured to a sub-par 136 for 9, after the match was revised to 26 overs for a side courtesy several rain interruptions, leaving the hosts to chase a DLS target of 131, which they duly reached in 21.1 overs.
Travis Head fell to Arshdeep Singh early, slashing the left-arm pacer to Harshit Rana at deep third man, and Matthew Short too walked back without any significant contribution.
India skipper Shubman Gill acknowledged it wasn’t easy for his side to come back from the three early setbacks in the first ODI against Australia, saying the team still put up a competitive show by taking the match “pretty deep” against the hosts, here on Sunday.
“Never easy, when you lose three wickets in the powerplay, you’re always trying to play catch up. There were a lot of learnings and positives as well,” said Gill after the match.
