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Spot-on Australia leave India scrambling to 240
A clinical display of bowling to the conditions enabled Australia to restrict India to a mddling total of 240 after putting them in to bat.
In front of a capacity crowd over 100000, Pat Cummins decided to take a chance and bowl first on the dry pitch despite India’s imperious batting record through the tournament. His judgement call threatened to be proven wrong as India, led by Rohit Sharma once again, got the momentum in the powerplay.
Sharma set the tone with a string of boundaries hitting Josh Hazlewood off his lengths even as Shubman Gill fell miscuing to mid on. But Virat Kohli got going just like Sharma, hitting Mitchell Starc for three consecutive boundaries to keep India’s run-rate up.
So far it had played to India’s template with Rohit racing towards a quickfire fifty. But Australia kept them on their toes with the introduction of spin which paid dividends. Sharma tried to hit Maxwell out but ended up miscuing one high up and Travis Head completed a superb catch running back and across from cover-point. An already silenced crowd was stunned further when Shreyas Iyer fell nicking behind to a cutter from Cummins.
Losing two wickets in the space of four balls forced India into a position of consolidation, which was done resolutely by the duo of Kohli and KL Rahul. While they remained steadfast, it was also a period where Australia were equally standout with the ball, allowing no freebies whatsoever. The duo went through a period of 97 balls without a boundary with even the likes of Mitchell Marsh keeping the lines tight.
Leading the way with the bowling plans for the pacers was Cummins (10-0-34-2 without conceding a boundary) who had set the tone with his off-pace cutters. But India had their hopes up as Kohli brought up his 9th fifty of the tournament and 5th consecutive one. Those hopes were dashed though by Cummins’ ploy, as another banged-in cutter saw Kohli chopping on after 54. The weight of the 765 runs that Kohli had amassed through the tournament mattered little at this point as India were pushed into another corner.
They responded by changing up the batting order with Ravindra Jadeja getting a promotion. But even this ploy did not mess up Australia’s lines as the boundaries simply did not come. Rahul, who held up one end, also brought up a fifty but there was no big finish to cap it off this time. Australia now found reverse swing as well which added to the challenge. Hazlewood had Jadeja nicking behind from round the wicket while Starc mirrored that at the other angle to prise out the defiant Rahul.
Suryakumar Yadav’s attempts to shepherd the tail as well as give India a boost did not come off as he gloved a slow bouncer from Hazlewood, effectively ending any chance of a late surge as India were eventually bowled out for 240 – a total that could be made to look lower if there is dew to come in as Australia anticipated ahead of the game.
Brief scores
India 240 in 50 overs (Rohit Sharma 47, Virat Kohli 54, K L Rahul 66; Mitchell Starc 3-55, Josh Hazelwood 2-60, Pat Cummins 2-34) vs Australia
Ireland Women 118/9 in 20 overs (Alana Dalzelle 14, Orla Prendergast 26, Leah Paul 10, Alice Tector 10, Louise Little 26*; Lauren Bell 1-39, Linsey Smith 1-20, Sophie Ecclestone 3-22, Charlie Dean 2-11, Dani Gibson 2-10) lost to England Women 119/6 in 17.3 overs (Dani Wyatt Hodge 16, Nat Sciver-Brunt 48, Heather Knight 26; Aimee Maguire 2-23, Orla Prendergast 2-17) by 4 wickets
Lionel Messi marked his record sixth World Cup appearance with his first hat-trick at a FIFA tournament as Argentina beat Algeria 3-0 to open the defence of their global crown, he also became the joint highest scorer at World Cups with the feat.
The former 38-year-old forward thought he had opened the scoring in the eighth minute in Kansas City on Tuesday when he slotted home from close range, but the offside flag was raised.
The dream start to his record-setting appearance, which will be matched by Cristiano Ronaldo for Portugal against DR Congo on Wednesday, was not to be denied for long though.
A trademark, mazy run was capped by a drive on the edge of the box from that famed left foot. The power too much for Algeria keeper Luca Zidane, son of World Cup winner with France, Zinidine.
Messi doubled his tally on the hour mark with a simple tap in from a rebound off the keeper following a drive from Alexis Mac Allister.
The moment that even a player as decorated as Messi came in the 76th minute when he drilled low past the keeper from just outside the box.
The strike took Messi level with former Germany striker Miroslav Klose on 16 World Cup goals.
His substitution came just three minutes later to a standard ovation, even old maestro seemed disappointed to be removed – and most likely rested for Argentina’s tilt at becoming only the third side to defend a World Cup title.
Algeria – the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations winners – offered little, but were themselves denied an early goal when Fares Chaibi’s ninth minute strike was ruled out for offside.
Messi saw to it that there was no opening game upset to be had tat this edition, having lost their opening game at Qatar 2022 to Saudi Arabia.
Messi, who spent the majority of his club career in Spain with Barcelona before moving to French giants Paris-Saint Germain, plys his trade in US football’s Major League Soccer with Inter Miami.
Jordan and Austria open their account in the group later on Tuesday in San Francisco.
[Aljazeera]
United States sprinter Noah Lyles has set the world’s best-ever time over the rarely-run 150 metres race, clocking 14.67 seconds at the Golden Spike meet in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava.
The 28-year-old Lyles on Tuesday beat the previous best of 14.72 set by Kishane Thompson of Jamaica in Florida in April.
At Ostrava, Lyles beat Sinesipho Dambile of South Africa with 14.78, while Australian teenager Gout Gout finished third in 14.96.
“Was there ever any doubt? Was there ever any doubt? We came for a show,” an elated Lyles told Czech TV.
Earlier this month, Lyles took a comfortable win at the Wanda Diamond League meet in Rome with a 9.88 in the 100m, his fastest since clinching gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The high-energy, anime-loving showman has had strong indoor and outdoor performances throughout the year so far, and was named on this year’s Time100 list of the most influential people.
Dutch star Femke Broeders-Bol had to bow to in-form Swiss Audrey Werro in her outdoor debut in the 800m.
The 26-year-old Broeders-Bol has switched from 400m hurdles, in which she had won two world gold medals, and clocked an impressive 1 minute 57.13 seconds for second place.
“It was so cool, I love racing in Ostrava. It was tough, but I enjoyed it,” she said.
Broeders-Bol has also claimed multiple medals as the anchor leg in 4x400m relay teams, notably a gold in the mixed event in the Paris Olympics.
She ran her first 800m since 2017 in February, clocking a national record of 1 minute 59.07 seconds before withdrawing from the rest of the indoor season to nurse a foot injury.
The 22-year-old Werro won in 1 minute 54.45 seconds, half a second behind her personal best from March, after shedding Broeders-Bol with 200 metres to run.
“It was a really crazy run, but the time is very good, so I’m really happy,” Werro said.
Having set the eighth best time ever, she stayed over a second behind the oldest world record in athletics of 1:53.28 set in 1983 by Jarmila Kratochvilova of then-Czechoslovakia, who watched the race from the stands.
South Africa’s 20-year-old Bayanda Walaza won the men’s 100m as he equalled his personal best of 9.94 seconds, beating Emmanuel Eseme of Cameroon with 9.99 seconds.
US favourites Ronnie Baker and Jordan Anthony were demoted to the fourth and fifth spots, respectively, with times well over 10 seconds.
[Aljazeera]
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