Australia defeats India by 66 runs in 1st ODI, take 1-0 lead

Australia made a winning start to the three-match ODI series as they beat India by 66 runs in the first game at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday.

Chasing a mammoth target, India needed a brisk start and they got one. Mitchell Starc conceded 20 runs in the first over, spraying the ball around, and the duo of Shikhar Dhawan and Mayank Agarwal played some crisp shots as India moved past fifty in the fifth over.

But, Josh Hazlewood broke the Dhawan-Agarwal partnership after the right-hander got in the sixth over after mistiming his shot off a short-delivery.

Australia had a chance to get the big wicket of Virat Kohli in the next over. But Adam Zampa could not hold on to a chance in the deep. Kohli followed that up with two successive fours off Pat Cummins and then whipped a six in the right-arm pacer's next over.

However, Hazlewood struck twice in the 10th over of the Indian chase, dismissing Kohli and Shreyas Iyer. While Dhawan and KL Rahul took India past 100, Zampa got the latter out in the 14th over to give Australia their fourth wicket.

India needed a partnership and Dhawan and Hardik Pandya did just that. The pair put up a remarkable fight and kept India's hopes alive.

Earlier, Australia set a mammoth target of  375for the loss of 6 wickets in the first ODI being played at Sydney. Donned in the retro jersey of 1992 world cup jersey, team India players replicated a performance of the same team back then. Below average bowling and sluggish bowling added woes after a solid partnership of centurion (114) Aaron Finch and David Warner. 

Steve Smith played even better than Finch at number 3 as he consumed even lesser balls to score a ton (105). when Finch and stoinis departed Maxwell did the rest of the work with a cameo.(UNI)