PERTH: Mitch Marsh guided Australia to a seven-wicket victory over India on Sunday with an unbeaten 46 in a rain-interrupted, series-opening one-day cricket international.

Australia won the toss and bowled first, restricting India to 136 for nine in 26 overs after a series of rain delays shortened the innings.

Australia was chasing a revised target of 131 under the DLS method and achieved the total with almost five overs to spare, finishing 131-3.

Marsh opened the batting in reply and wasn’t troubled as he shared stands of 34 with Matthew Short (8), 55 with Josh Philippe (37) and 32 with Matt Renshaw, who finished 21 not out on his ODI debut.

KL Rahul held India's innings together after a top-order collapse.

He shared a 39-run partnership with Axar Patel (31) and 31 with Sundar (10) before he was out for 38 off 31 balls as India chased quick runs late in the innings.

His dismissal sparked a run of three wickets for three runs before Nitish Reddy ushered India to 136-9 with an unbeaten 19 from 11 deliveries, included two sixes.

India struggled early, losing Rohit Sharma (8), skipper Shubman Gill (10) and Virat Kohli (0) to slide to 25-3 in the ninth over.

Sharma was removed in the fourth over by a Josh Hazlewood ball that jagged off the pitch, took the edge of the former skipper's bat and was caught by Renshaw at second slip.

Kohli made an eight-ball duck before he was Mitchell Starc's first wicket, spectacularly caught by Cooper Connolly at gully.

When Gill was caught behind down the legside off Nathan Ellis, India was reeling.

The 18 runs between Sharma, Gill and Kohli was the lowest aggregate by India’s top three in a men’s ODI since 2019.

Then came the rain delays as the innings was shortened to 35, then 32, then 26 overs.

Shreyas Iyer (11) became Hazlewood's second wicket before Rahul and Patel set about building the total to at least make the series-opening game competitive.

India’s eight-game tour of Australia will continue with ODIs in Adelaide on Thursday and Sydney on Saturday. The five-game T20 series starts October 29.

Articles tagged with "Mitch Marsh"

Australia beats India by 7 wickets in rain-hit ODI