Australian captain Pat Cummins did not pin the blame for the six-wicket loss in their ODI World Cup 2023 opener on Mitchell Marsh for the dropped catch of Virat Kohli early on in the innings. Marsh’s dropped catch turned out to be costly as Kohli went on to score 85 runs and the partnership for the fourth wicket between him and KL Rahul took the game away from Australia.
“I have already forgotten about it, it happens, 4/10 [20] would have been a dream start,” Cummins said in the post-match presentation as he was asked about the dropped catch.
Cummins admitted that setting a target of 200 was not enough at MA Chidambaram Stadium. However, he did not feel that having two spinners in the attack was a disadvantage. “At least 50-odd. It was tough, trying to defend anything under 200,” he said.
“It was a really good bowling attack and their spinners made it tough work out there. I wasn't too upset, we had 20 overs of spin but some more runs on the board would have made the difference.”
Cummins lauded Josh Hazlewood who struck twice to dismiss Indian skipper Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer in the second over. He would have dismissed Kohli and put India under more pressure with the new ball but Marsh dropped his catch.
“He is a class bowler and poses a lot of questions, stays in that area and was fantastic today,” the 30-year-old said.
Cummins did not have a good day with the bat or bowl. He remained wicketless and conceded 33 runs from 6.2 overs. Earlier, he scored 15 runs from 24 balls. Despite a below-par performance, Cummins is not worried about losing against the hosts as he feels that they have plenty of time to make for it in the long tournament.
“We have to review this one, absolutely a tough surface, but what if we are up against it then how would we do differently? Just one game out of nine, not too much to ponder about but there are some areas we need to get better,” the bowling all-rounder concluded.
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