Twitter Reactions: David Warner and Aaron Finch smash centuries to thrash India in Mumbai

Australia have walked past India without even breaking a sweat in the first of the three-match ODI series to take a 1-0 lead. Their bowlers were simply fantastic earlier after which the Aussie openers, David Warner and skipper Aaron Finch, literally pummelled the Indian bowlers to stun the jam-packed Wankhede stadium. The visitors have begun their short tour to India with a thumping 10-wicket victory and signs are not looking good for India.

India, as hinted by Virat Kohli in the lead up to the game, played both KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan and the move backfired. The Men in Blue started well with the bat despite losing Rohit Sharma early. Rahul and Dhawan stitched a 121-run partnership for the second wicket. While the latter looked fluent after struggling with the new ball, his partner also played some cracking strokes to put India in the ascendancy.

Rather Dhawan looked like taking the game away from the Aussies with his remarkable hitting. However, Ashton Agar broke the partnership by sniffing out Rahul on 47 in the 28th over and all hell broke loose for the hosts. India slipped from being comfortably placed at 134/1 to 165/5 in a matter of 35 balls.

Kohli fails at number four

Virat Kohli walked in to bat at four but the move didn’t work as the World number 1 batsman got out to Adam Zampa after scoring only 16 runs. Just before Shikhar Dhawan was dismissed after scoring 79 runs and Shreyas Iyer’s rare failure lead to Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja rebuilding the innings in the 33rd over. The duo did well to stitch a 49-run stand.

But Pat Cummins came back for a spell to snaffle Pant and soon Jadeja fell. Whenever India seemed to be gaining some momentum, Australia picked a wicket and eventually the home side could only post 255 runs. They were bundled out in the final over of the innings with Mitchell Starc returning with impressive figures of 3/56 in only his second ODI in India. Cummins and Kane Richardson picked a couple of wickets each.

Finch and Warner smash centuries

With only 255 runs on the board, India needed early wickets to put any pressure on Australia. But that breakthrough never came. Shardul Thakur found some swing with the new ball and even had David Warner in his very first over. However, Warner reviewed only to overturn the on-field umpire’s decision and then what followed was absolute dominance from the Aussie pair.

Both Finch and Warner didn’t give any chance to the opposition and played their shots fearlessly. One can argue that both of them were lucky a couple of times with the edges falling in no man’s land but that doesn’t take any credit from them for the way they batted. It was proper hiding for India who were on a winning spree during their home season.

The duo also completed their respective centuries as the hosts failed to pick even a single wicket. Eventually, Australia completed the chase in the 38th over of the innings and won the match by 10 wickets. While David Warner remained unbeaten on 128 with 17 fours and three sixes, Finch scored an unbeaten 110 with 13 fours and a couple of sixes to his name.

With the second ODI set to be played on another batting beauty in Rajkot, the visitors will be eager to seal the series while India will have to improve a lot to make a comeback.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: