Australia’s seven-wicket victory in the rain-shortened opening ODI on Sunday was largely due to their early wicket-taking, but spinner Matthew Kuhnemann has confidence that India will bounce back strongly after their heavy defeat in the first match of the tour.
India struggled, posting just 136 for nine in the first half, which was disrupted by frequent rain interruptions. The early dismissals of Rohit Sharma (8) and Virat Kohli (0) set the tone in Australia’s favour.
The Optus Stadium saw a large turnout of Indian fans supporting the visiting team, with Rohit and Kohli playing their first international match since March this year. However, their failures with the bat highlighted India’s ordinary performance.
Kuhnemann, when asked if it felt like
an away game and whether Australia managed to silence the crowd, commented on the significance of taking early wickets against such a formidable team.
“Yeah, especially when you come up against a team like this when all their batters are world-class and legends of the game and so, especially to get wickets upfront, (it) makes a massive difference,” he said.
Despite the defeat, Kuhnemann believes India will come back strongly in the series.
“I think they’ll come back real strong. Like I said, they’re a world-class team and it’s going to be a great series, With the one-dayers and the T20Is, it’s going to be awesome,” he added.
Turn Point Of Match?
Kuhnemann, who impressed with a tidy four-over spell returning figures of 2/26, taking the wickets of Axar Patel (31) and Washington Sundar (10), credited his T20 experience for his performance.
“When we kept coming on and off, the one stage I didn’t think I was going to bowl. Even bowling at the end there, I sort of knew it was going to be a tough ask,” he said.
“But I’ve sort of been around this group now for a little while and especially the T20 side of things. I spent a lot of time the last six months on that sort of role in T20 bowling so it came handy today (Sunday),” Kuhnemann concluded.
(With inputs from Agencies)
