1st ODI: Under-pressure KL Rahul, artistic Mohammed Shami star in India's five-wicket win

KL Rahul revelled under pressure with a composed 75 after Mohammed Shami's mesmerising spell of seam bowling as India overcame initial jitters with elan in ir comfortable five-wicket win against Australia in opening ODI here on Friday.

India w lead three-match series 1-0.

After being put in to bat, Australia suffered a dramatic collapse, losing six wickets for 19 runs inside eight overs to get bowled out for 188 in 35.4 overs, courtesy 3/17 from Shami. Mitchell Starc n blew away Indian top-order with some incisive swing bowling as India were left tottering at 39 for 4 just after end of Powerplay.

Skipper Hardik Pandya (25) did stem rot but India weren't out of woods when he was dismissed with scoreboard reading 83 for 5. But Ravindra Jadeja (45 t out, 69 balls), after having bowled nine tight overs of left-arm spin, gave adequate support in his unbroken 108-run stand with Rahul.

India won game in 39.5 overs. But Rahul does deserve credit for anchoring innings in face of a storm, and has taken to role of a .5 keeper-batter like fish takes to water.

He enjoys low-scoring scrappy battles and Friday at Wankhede was one such occasion.

twilight hour, however, did belong to Starc. Australian quick moved new ball dangerously in air as well as off surface. He pinned Virat Kohli (4) in front of wickets off penultimate ball of fifth over and, with final delivery of that over, trapped Suryakumar Yadav leg-before for a first-ball duck.

right-arm pacer Sean Abbott too got ball to jag back in, trapping Shubman Gill leg-before but Indian batter reviewed successfully after being adjudged out.

Gill had luck riding in his favour as Australia missed two tough chances behind wickets, but Indian could t capitalise. Starc bowled fuller deliveries outside off to get Indians to drive, hoping to find edges or shots hit in air.

Deployed on a longer six-over burst, Starc finally succeeded after Gill hit left-armer for two fours. bowler had him caught at point for 20 off 31 balls with four fours in all, leaving India in a precarious position at 39/4 in 10.2 overs.

This is when Rahul showed his experience as he didn't take undue risks but, at same time, punished loose balls as and when necessary. He hit Adam Zampa into deep mid-wicket stands. key was rotation of strike as Rahul and Jadeja ran 56 singles between m.

But credit should be given to Pandya for marshalling resources well on his ODI captaincy debut, albeit as a stand-in one. idea to bring in Shami for an early second spell proved to be a masterstroke as Australia from 169/4 just collapsed like a house of cards.

He got Jos Inglis to drag one back onto his stumps and n in his next over, delivery to Cameron Green that sent off-stump cart-wheeling was a real peach.

It pitched on line of off-stump and Green had to commit but re was a shade late movement that beat batter and kcked back off-stump.

veteran pacer helped India pull things back after an attacking 65-ball 81 from Mitchell Marsh set Australia on course for a competitive total, as his second spell of 3-2-8-3 broke back of Australia's resistance after a sparkling start.

Shami finished with brilliant figures of 6-2-17-3.

On or hand, Siraj, who provided an early wicket in second over, also enjoyed success in his second spell to return with 5.4-1-29-3, snaffling last two wickets in Australian innings.

Marsh provided Australia with a rollicking start -- cracking 10 fours and five sixes in his first-ever innings as an opener in ODIs -- on his comeback to international cricket after a three-month layoff following an ankle surgery.

Marsh's charge in first half of game ensured Australia kept moving briskly towards a big total, but India kept making inroads at regular intervals and eventually bundled m out for a below-par score.