Aaron Finch, Steve Smith star in Australia's 66-run victory over India

After 269 long days, Team India played their first ODI match post the unprecedented COVID-19 break.

Australia won the toss early on and decided to bat first. The hosts got a formidable start to their innings and were able to set up a humongous total of 374 courtesy of centuries from Aaron Finch and Steve Smith. In reply, the visitors began run-chase with high intensity. Shikhar Dhawan and Mayank Agarwal were quick off the block. Josh Hazlewood rattled the Indian top-order as India were three down for 80 at the end of the batting powerplay. 

It was Hardik Pandya who stood along with Dhawan in this massive run-chase at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The duo stitched a 129-run partnership for the fifth wicket. Despite half-centuries knocks by both Dhawan (74 runs off 86 balls) and Pandya (90 runs off 76 balls) the visitors failed to complete the chase and fell short by 66 runs.

Excerpts from the post-match presentation

Virat Kohli on India’s performance 

"We got enough time to prepare, I don't think there's any excuses on the field when you don't pull up as a side. Probably the first long game we've played in a while. I think body language on the field after 25-26 overs was disappointing. We have to find ways to get a few overs from our part-timers. We wanted to play positive cricket. We just needed to have a big inning from the top three, 130 or 140, which didn't happen, unfortunately," said Indian skipper Virat Kohli during the post-match presentation. 

The centurion skipper was full of praise for his mates

“I found it reasonably hard to get my timing. I took a couple of chances every now and then and got lucky. We’ve barely been together as a team. There hasn’t been a conscious effort to play a certain way. You make sure you’re playing to your strengths. Smudge (Steve Smith) was a different class altogether. Maxwell’s got the ability to just click his fingers and put pressure back on the opposition,” said Australian skipper Aaron Finch during the post-match presentation. 

Steve Smith was adjudged the man of the match for scoring 105 off just 66 balls, including 11 boundaries and four maximums.

“I’ve been searching for something for a couple of months now, unfortunately, haven’t been able to find it. But a couple of days ago I started to hit the ball where I wanted it, and everything came back, the rhythm came back. Finchy and Davey set an excellent platform, we could come and just take off. I wasn’t thinking too much out there, just seeing the ball and hitting it. That’s probably when I bat my best. I took a few more risks than I would normally, targeted some bowlers and fortunately it came off today. I thought it was a bit high (on the lbw referral) and fortunately, it was. You need a bit of luck sometimes, nice to ride it today and score a few for the team,” said Steve Smith.

Summary: Australia 374/6 in 50 overs (Aaron Finch 114, Steve Smith 105, David Warner 69, Glenn Maxwell 45; Mohammad Shami 3-59) beat India 308/8 in 50 overs (Hardik Pandya 90, Shikhar Dhawan 74; Adam Zampa 4-54, Josh Hazlewood 3-55) by 66 runs.