India vs Australia 1st ODI: Twitter Hails Hardik Pandya & MS Dhoni, Trolls India's Top-Order

Updated - 19 May 2019, 04:07 PM

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Riding on Hardik Pandya‘s whirlwind career-best knock and MS Dhoni‘s 100th international half-century, India recovered from a disastrous start to post a challenging 281 for 7 in the first One-Day Internationals against Australia in Chennai.

Virat Kohli‘s decision to bat first turned out to be a nightmare with Nathan Coulter-Nile running out. Even before the spectators could settle down on their seats, the hosts found themselves reeling at 11 for 3 with Nathan Coulter-Nile picking up all the three wickets.

Ajinkya Rahane was the first to go when he edged an outside the off-stump delivery behind the wicket before Kohli fell prey to a similar kind of delivery.  Manish Pandey also could not do much and was dismissed for a duck before Rohit Sharma and Kedar Jadhav calmed down the nerves in the dressing room. However, just when it looked like the pair had got a measure of things, Rohit played a poor shot to return back to the playing and thus bringing an end to the 53-run partnership.

India then found itself in further trouble when Jadhav also perished playing a poor shot to leave the team reeling at 87 for 5. However, the home side clawed its way back into the game after Dhoni and Pandya added 118 runs for the sixth wicket. Pandya was the major contributor in the partnership, scoring 83 off 66 balls including the over when he hit Adam Zampa for a four and 3 sixes on the four consecutive deliveries. Dhoni and Bhuvneshwar Kumar then helped the Men in Blue to close the innings on a good note. The duo added 72 runs for the sixth wicket before Dhoni was dismissed by James Faulkner for 79 in the final over. Bhuvneshwar also played a handy knock off 32 off 30 balls.

Here is how Twitter reacted to the dramatic innings:

Lavish praise for Pandya and Dhoni:

https://twitter.com/MoeenAli/status/909373059970273280

https://twitter.com/AllTimeBakchod/status/909370483996422145

Men in Blue trolled for early collapse:

https://twitter.com/sagarcasm/status/909333249289158657