Australia captain Steve Smith admitted that the first ODI against India, which they lost by five wickets, could have been more interesting for his team if they had posted a score above 250 with the bat.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Friday's pitch at the Wankhede Stadium offered persistent help to the fast bowlers throughout the match, making life difficult for the batters. Australia, despite Mitchell Marsh's 81 and being at 129\/2, crashed to 188 all out as Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj picked three wickets each.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"We weren't expecting this at the Wankhede, usually pretty good scores. India bowled really well. We probably left a few out there. If we had got over 250, it would have been interesting the way the ball was swinging and seaming.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Maybe 260-270 was a par score. I don't think it was a great wicket, it was offering a fair bit for the seamers at times. The ball swung pretty much for 30-odd overs for both teams. We just needed to score more runs. Credit to India," Smith said after the match.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Smith also praised the unbeaten 108-run stand between KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja that took India over the line in a chase of 189 and towards a 1-0 lead in the three-game series, and rued his batters' inability to put up one big partnership.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"KL and Jaddu's partnership was really good when they were under pressure. We started pretty well. Mitch played really nicely and took the game on early and got a few away and kept going. We lost too many wickets through the middle," he said.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"We weren't able to get a partnership and get to a reasonable total. We were always one partnership away from them beating us. Jadeja and Rahul showed how to do it," he added.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The second ODI of the three-match series between India and Australia will be played at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"We weren't able to get a partnership and get to a reasonable total. We were always one partnership away from them beating us. Jadeja and Rahul showed how to do it," he added.<\/p>\r\n\r\n