Australia vs India, 1st ODI: Aaron Finch, Steve Smith, and David Warner helps Australia in putting highest target against India

A classical century of Aaron Finch and a powerful hundred from Steve Smith, coupled with essential contributions from David Warner and Glenn Maxwell, helped Australia inputting the highest target against India in the opening ODI match in SCG.

Finch and Warner led from the front, then Smith and Maxwell added ballistic runs on a warm and bright Friday afternoon. They played a perfect inning based on collaboration and a suitable acceleration. Virat Kohli’s side was given a humongous task to avoid 1-0 down in a three-match ODI series.

Muhammad Shami bowled an admirable spell; the Indian’s were sluggish with the ball and in the field. There were several misfields and dropped catches that raised the eyebrows of Kohli. The leg-breaker, Yuzvendra Chahal, was also not spared, and most of his deliveries went defenseless by Smith and Maxwell at their best.

Australia had only one change from their last ODI team against England; Smith came back in Mitchell Marsh. Mayank Agarwal went in place of Rohit Sharma, partnered with Shikhar Dhawan, from India’s side.

Today, Indian and Australian players made a “Barefoot Circle” respect and acknowledged the land’s traditional owners. Barefoot Circle is a gesture given by Australian cricket to connect the aboriginal culture and the land on which matches are played and has already been played. This procedure is done barefoot to show that we all are connected as a country, and we all are on common ground.

The all-rounder, Marcus Stoinis spoke to the host broadcaster of Fox Cricket, and he explained what it meant:

“It’s imperative that we take a stand and we understand how important the Aboriginal culture is to Australia and Australian history, and it was really good by India to show that respect as well. It means a lot. It’s the start of a long process, and I think education is the start of it as well.”

The skipper, Aaron Finch, became the second fasted Australian to reach 5000. He achieved this milestone in the first ODI match against Australia in MCG. He earned 5000 runs in ODI matches in 126 innings, and with that, he surpassed the late Dean Jones, who reached the milestone in 128 innings. David Warner is the fasted Australian batsman to reach 5000 ODI runs in 115 innings, while South African Hashim Amla is the fastest batsman ever to reach 5000 runs in101 innings.

The lead scorers were Aaron Finch 114 (124), Steve Smith 105 (66), and David Warner 69 (76). Muhammad Shami took three wickets while Bumrah, Navdeep, and Chahal took a single wicket each.