Hyderabad, Mar 2: Mahendra Singh Dhoni took a chase deep for the umpteenth time but it needed Kedar Jadhav's street smartness to get India back on winning track as they beat Australia by six wickets in the first ODI here Saturday.

India reached the target in 48.2 overs, riding on a 141-run unconquered stand between Kedar (81 no, 87 balls) and Dhoni (59 no off 72 balls), to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

India had lost the two preceding T20 Internationals.

Clad in their brand new jerseys, the successful chase of 237 was a throwback to the good old 90's when Ajay Jadeja and Robin Singh would hunt down those sub 250 totals in exciting finishes.

However, it shouldn't be lost in isolation that India made a heavy weather of an easy target on a not so difficult wicket.

As has been the case these days, Dhoni was once again unable to rotate the strike at the start of his innings and the onus was on Kedar to hit the boundaries after they joined hands at 99 for four with skipper Virat Kohli (44, 45 balls) and his deputy Rohit Sharma (37, 66 balls) back in the hut.

While Dhoni hit six fours and a six off Nathan Coulter-Nile, it was the diminutive Maharashtra man, who did the hard yards of finding the gaps.

Be it the inside out boundaries off Adam Zampa or those cheeky tennis ball dabs off his hips or a steer through the third man, Kedar was everything that Dhoni needed in those middle overs.

On the way to his fifth half-century, Kedar hit nine fours and a six as he upped the ante once Dhoni started suffering from cramps, getting those big shots out of the closet.

That age is catching up was visible when Dhoni was taking those doubles on big Australian grounds but he did enough to complete his 71st half-century in his 339th ODI. Fittingly, Dhoni finished the game with successive boundaries off Marcus Stoinis.

In the afternoon, Indian bowlers controlled the proceedings like seasoned puppeteers, pulling strings at will to restrict Australia to a sub-par 236 for 7.

It was a vastly different performance from the bowling unit which maintained discipline for the better part of the 50 overs with Mohammed Shami (2/44 in 10 overs) showing the way.

Kuldeep Yadav (2/46 in 10 overs), Ravindra Jadeja (0/33 in 10 overs) and Kedar Jadhav (1/31) made up for a rare off-day that Jasprit Bumrah (2/60 in 10 overs), had by his standards.

Even Usman Khawaja (50) and Glenn Maxwell (40), despite being the top two contributors, weren't exactly comfortable against an Indian attack that bowled as many as 169 dot balls.

This effectively meant Australia couldn't score 28.1 overs out of the 50 overs during Indian innings.

What the statistics won't reveal is the contribution of Kedar as the sixth bowler and Jadeja, who stifled the Aussies during the second Powerplay.

This was after Shami bowled a brilliant wicketless first spell which was seen off by Stoinis (37, 53 balls) and Khawaja (50, 76 balls), who added 87 runs for the second wicket after early dismissal of Aaron Finch.

It was Khawaja, who was first to break the shackles with a cover drive off Bumrah and a six off Kuldeep, introduced in the last over of the first Powerplay.

With only 38 runs coming in the first Powerplay, the duo especially Stoinis decided to up the ante against Indian bowling's weakest link Vijay Shankar (0/22 in 3 overs), hitting him for a flurry of boundaries.

In the next five overs, Australia scored 33 and looked like regaining ground when Jadhav (1/31 from 7 overs) got a lucky breakthrough with a rank half-tracker. Stoinis mistimed the pull shot to Virat Kohli at mid-wicket.

Khawaja completed his sixth half-century in ODIs but couldn't get the elevation while giving Kuldeep the charge. Shankar took a well-judged catch at deep mid-wicket boundary running sideways.

Maxwell joined Peter Handscomb at 97 for three and the duo farmed the strike well during their run-a-ball partnership.

Handscomb was using his feet well but Kuldeep managed to produce a classical chinaman's delivery. Handscomb was deceived twice first in the air and then it broke back sharply for Dhoni to complete the easiest of glovework.

Once Handscomb was out, India controlled the second Powerplay with Kedar and Jadeja choking the run-flow.

Despite not getting wickets, Jadeja bowled two miserly spells 5-0-15-0 and 5-0-18-0. To top it, he was hit for only two boundaries and bowled 34 dot balls which kept the visitors under tight leash.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



New Delhi, Oct 24: Justice Sanjiv Khanna was on Thursday appointed the 51st Chief Justice of India.

He will take oath on November 11, a day after incumbent Justice D Y Chandrachud demits office on attaining the age of 65.

Justice Chandrachud took over as the CJI on November 8, 2022.

Justice Khanna will have a tenure of a little over six months as CJI and would demit office on May 13, 2025.

"In exercise of the power conferred by the Constitution of India, Hon'ble President, after consultation with Hon'ble Chief Justice of India, is pleased to appoint Shri Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Judge of the Supreme Court of India as Chief Justice of India with effect from 11th November, 2024," Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal posted on X.

Justice Khanna was appointed an additional judge of the Delhi High Court in 2005 and was made a permanent judge in 2006. On January 18, 2019, he was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court.

Born on May 14, 1960, he studied law at the Campus Law Centre of Delhi University.

Some of the notable judgments of Justice Khanna in the Supreme Court include upholding the use of electronic voting machines in elections, saying the devices were secure and eliminated booth capturing and bogus voting.

He was also part of the five-judge bench that declared the electoral bond scheme, meant for funding of political parties, as unconstitutional.

Justice Khanna was a part of the five-judge bench, which upheld the Centre's 2019 decision abrogating Article 370 of the Constitution which granted a special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Justice Khanna, who is the senior-most judge after the outgoing CJI, and the executive chairman of the National Legal Service Authority (NALSA), had granted interim bail to the then Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, an accused in the alleged Delhi excise policy scam cases, for campaigning in Lok Sabha elections.

He is the nephew of former apex court judge H R Khanna, who was part of the landmark verdict propounding the basic structure doctrine in Kesavananda Bharati case of 1973.

The retirement age of Supreme Court judges is 65 years, while high court judges demit office at the age of 62 years.

The Centre recently asked CJI Chandrachud to name his successor.

According to the memorandum of procedure (MoP) -- a set of documents guiding appointment, elevation and transfer of high court and Supreme Court judges -- the law minister writes to the CJI to name his or her successor.

Law Minister Meghwal had written to CJI Chandrachud asking him to name his successor.

The MoP says the senior-most judge of the apex court is considered fit to hold the office of the CJI and the views of the outgoing head of the judiciary have to be sought "at an appropriate time".

The MoP, however, does not specify the time limit for the initiation of the process of recommending the name of the successor CJI.