Sydney: After almost a gap of COVID 19 traumatized eight months, Sydney woke up yesterday with freshness and enthusiasm as the host city of the first one-day international cricket between Australia and India representing one of the great rivalries in the world of sports today.
It was once again nice to see thousands marching towards the coveted Sydney Cricket Ground, many holding their national flags, though the crowd size not the same as pre COVID time. The stadium was filled only to half the capacity to maintain a safe distance between spectators, some of them wearing face masks, though the locally acquired cases in the state have been bare minimum for the last few weeks.
Led by Virat Kohli, the Men in Blue arrived downunder on 12 November to go through the quarantine formalities for the Aussie summer of international cricket comprising of three ODIs, three T20s and four test matches. Estimated to be worth $300 million, safe delivery of the series in the middle of this worldwide pandemic is of great importance to Cricket Australia.
Prior to the match the expectations were high on both sides. India earlier in January this year clinched a 2-1 victory over Australia in the three-match ODI series, while Australia, eager to bounce back with the return of Steve Smith and Dave Warner back into the squad.
So the match began with great excitement with chants and roars finding its voice back inside the arena.
Winning the toss, Australia batted first and piled up a huge total of 374 losing 6 wickets only. Major contributions came from the centuries from captain Aaron Finch and Steven Smith, coupled with stormy innings from David Warner and Glenn Maxwell. India’s bowling and fielding performance was not up to expectations, allowing the home team to build up such a high total. Definitely the absence of a sixth bowler was strongly felt when the five regular bowlers were badly hit.
Under lights, India started well but soon lost its top order batsmen – Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli, Lokesh Raul and Sreyas Iyer primarily because of poor stroke play, Iyer’s dismissal sent a message that perhaps he is not comfortable to face pace attack. Finally, India managed to get a score above 300 with the loss of 8 wickets. Thanks to a thundering 90 from Hardik Pandya and a sluggish 74 from Shikar Dhawan.
Surely it was a commanding win for Australia but overall it was a big win for sports and for our fight against the pandemic.
One disturbing moment during the play was two men jogging inside the field with banners in hand, protesting against the Adani coal mining project in Queensland.
