The past few months were extremely difficult for Indian batter KL Rahul. The Test series against Australia saw him getting dropped from the playing XI after a couple of bad games, where he scored 20, 17 & 1 in three innings, and the tag of ‘vice-captain’ beside his name didn’t exist anymore. But a player of his stature does know how to bounce back and shut up the critics. On Friday, Rahul’s courageous knock bailed India out of a precarious situation in the chase of 189 against Australia in the Mumbai ODI. Had he not held his nerves, the Aussies might have gone 1-0 up in the series despite suffering an upsetting batting collapse.
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The Australian bowling attack, led by Mitchell Starc, ran through the Indian top order and reduced India to 39/4 within 11 overs. The hosts seemed to be running out of gas when Rahul came in the middle and played a superb knock to settle down the things. He featured in two crucial partnerships – 44 runs with captain Hardik Pandya and an unbeaten 108-run stand with Ravindra Jadeja – to help India cross the finish line. He remained unbeaten on 75 off 91 deliveries, which he scored with the help of 7 boundaries and six.
Though Rahul batted at a lower strike-rate, the way he pacified the situation for India was commendable. His patient knock was hugely praised by the commentators, including former India head coach Ravi Shastri.
Speaking with them after India’s win, Rahul said he just tried to play his normal shots and once he got some boundaries, he was pretty much confident to bat along.
“Saw three wickets fall down early, Starc was swinging the ball well and when he brings the ball back in, he is a dangerous bowler. Just tried to play normal cricketing shots. Got a few boundaries away and that settled my nerves. I batted with Shubman, Hardik, and Jadeja. The talk was that there’s help on the wicket but we did not want to get into our shells and play out a certain bowler,” Rahul told the broadcasters.
“We wanted to be positive and put the loose balls away. If we are good without footwork, we could do well and it was fun batting with Jadeja. The minute the left-hander walked in, I got a few loose balls. That happens to the best of bowlers. The left-hander walked in and that worked for us. Jaddu batted beautifully and he runs hard between the wickets. He is in great form and he knows what to do in those situations,” he added.
India and Australia will shift their bases to Vizag for the second ODI, scheduled to be played on Sunday. Captain Rohit Sharma will back into the mix while Pandya will be his deputy.
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