India’s star pacer Mohammed Shami picked up a five-wicket haul as India restricted Australia to 276 in 50 overs at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali on Friday. Ever since the beginning, the Indian bowlers kept on taking wickets at regular intervals as Australia’s batter looked clueless. Shami concluded the innings with the figures of 5/51 in his 10 overs of quota and also became the third Indian pacer to pick a fifer against Australia in ODIs.
After being asked to bat first, the Kangaroos suffered an early blow in the form of Mitchell Marsh’s wicket after Shami removed him by delivering a peach of a delivery. It was a brilliant out-swinger from the pacer that forced an edge from Marsh’s willow as Shubman Gill grabbed an easy catch in the slip. Veteran batters David Warner and Steve Smith did revive the Australian innings by sharing a 94-run stand for the second wicket to put their side’s innings back on track. Warner smashed his 29th ODI half-century.
Skipper KL Rahul again asked Shami to bowl and the pacer did the damage by removing Steve Smith in the 22nd over. The ball nipped in sharply as Smith ended up edging the ball and went on to hit the stumps. Smith departed after scoring 41 runs in his comeback game against India.
Ravichandran Ashwin, who is making his return in an ODI format after a span of 20 months picked up the procedure wicket of in-form Marnus Labuschagne. The wicket came in the fourth ball of the 33rd over as Labuschagne looking to play a reverse sweep but missed it completely and got out. Coming down the order, Inglis and Marcus Stonis formed a 62-run stand for the sixth wicket and helped Australia post 276 in 50 overs at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali. Shami then bowled the penultimate over and dismissed Matthew Shor and Sean Abbott to reach his five-wicket haul.