Melbourne: A lacklustre India opened their cricket tri-series campaign on a disappointing note as they slumped to a 65-run defeat against Australia, who yet again exposed the batting chinks of the visitors in a rain-truncated encounter, here on Sunday.
Australia recovered from a few early jolts to score 216 for five in their 32 overs and then bundled out the visitors for 151 in 29.4 overs at the flood-lit MCG.
The Indians dropped out of form Virender Sehwag from the team but the batting woes, that has plagued the side right through the Test series, continued to haunt them in the first match of the tr-series.
Some of the batsmen got good start but could not translate them into big scores.
India were never in the chase and but for young guns Virat Kohli (31) and Rohit Sharma (21) and their 51-run third wicket stand, India’s top order collapsed in a heap to Australian pacemen.
Clint McKay was the most destructive home bowler, taking four wickets for just 20 runs while Mitchell Starc (2/33) and spinner Xavier Doherty (2/36) claimed two wickets each. It was left-arm paceman Starc who struck early with the scalps of openers Sachin Tendulkar (2) and Gautam Gambhir (5) in his first spell. Bowling full and with the same venom as in Tests, Starc and his new ball partner Ryan Harris came hard at the Indians first up.
Kohli and Sharma were undeterred and gave glimpses of their promise against a hostile opponent.
They had raised 51 runs when Clint McKay, on his first four balls in the match, sent them packing.
The dye was now cast and it only worsened when Suresh Raina (4) hit one up in the air off debutant Daniel Christian. India were now reeling at 77 for 5 in the 12th over.
The match was now as good as over and overlooked in the melee was Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s 29 off 38 balls. (PTI)