Marsh guides Australia to 7-wicket win over India in rain-marred ODI series opener
Original Publication Date: October 18, 2025 8:36PM
Publication Updated: October 19, 2025 5:37AM
PERTH, Australia (AP) — Mitch Marsh guided Australia to a seven-wicket victory over India on Sunday with an unbeaten 46 in a rain-interrupted, series-opening one-day cricket international.
Australia won the toss and bowled first, restricting India to 136 for nine in 26 overs as four rain delays wiped out more than 3 1/2 hours of play and shortened each innings.
Australia was chasing a revised target of 131 under the DLS method and achieved the total with almost five overs to spare, finishing 131-3.
Marsh opened the batting in reply and wasn’t troubled as he shared stands of 34 with Matthew Short (8), 55 with Josh Philippe (37) and 32 with Matt Renshaw, who finished 21 not out on his ODI debut.
“The weather played its part,” Marsh said. “Proud of the way our young guys came out and took the game on and got us over the line.”
India’s early collapse
India struggled early, losing Rohit Sharma (8), skipper Shubman Gill (10) and Virat Kohli (0) to slide to 25-3 in the ninth over.
“Never easy, when you lose three wickets in the powerplay, you’re always trying to play a catch-up game,” Gill said.
Sharma was removed in the fourth over by a Josh Hazlewood ball that jagged off the pitch, took the edge of the former skipper’s bat and was caught by Renshaw at second slip.
Kohli, back for the first time since the Champions Trophy victory in March, made an eight-ball duck before he was Mitchell Starc’s first wicket, spectacularly caught by Cooper Connolly at gully.
When Gill was caught behind down the legside off Nathan Ellis, India was reeling.
The 18 runs between Sharma, Gill and Kohli was the lowest aggregate by India’s top three in a men’s ODI since 2019.
KL Rahul went in held India’s innings together, sharing a 39-run partnership with Axar Patel (31) and 31 with Sundar (10) before he was out for 38 off 31 balls.
His dismissal sparked a run of three wickets for three runs before Nitish Reddy ushered India to 136-9 with an unbeaten 19 from 11 deliveries, included two sixes.
India’s eight-game tour of Australia will continue with ODIs in Adelaide on Thursday and Sydney on Saturday. The five-game T20 series starts Oct. 29. After this series, Australia will play the Ashes test series against England.
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