India and Australia are engaged in a massive battle in the ongoing One-Day International (ODI) series, Down Under. The opening ODI on Friday saw Australia gaining the upper hand and winning by 66 runs, which marked twin centuries from Aaron Finch and Steve Smith, while Glenn Maxwell played a cameo of 19-ball 45.
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Nonetheless, Maxwell apologised to Indian wicketkeeper-batsman KL Rahul following his innings. He sent out a tweet on the same, saying "I apologised to him while I was batting #kxipfriends".
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The apology comes since both Maxwell and Rahul play for Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in the Indian Premier League (IPL), where the latter is the skipper. Maxwell, notably, is coming off a rough patch in the just-concluded edition of the IPL, where he failed to hit even a single six.
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Meanwhile, Rahul was in a glorious form in the IPL, scoring the most runs in the tournament. He scored 670 in 14 innings at an average of 55.83, including a century and five half-centuries. As for Maxwell, he scored just 108 from 11 innings at an average of only 15.42, including nine fours.
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1st ODI match summary: Winning the toss, Australian skipper Aaron Finch elected to bat first on a flat track. The openers were off to an explosive start, as they managed to score 156 within 28 overs. It was followed by twin centuries from Aaron Finch (114) and Steve Smith (105), as they posted a humongous total of 3746. In reply, India were off to the right start, but the top middle-order batsmen lost their wickets in haste, piling more pressure on the lower middle-order batsmen. While Hardik Pandya did play a brave knock of 90, it was not enough to steer them through, as Adam Zampa's 454 allowed the Aussies to win by 66 runs.
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India are now playing Australia in the second ODI at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG). Australia are batting first, as they are off to a fiery start, with Steve Smith scoring 104, while they look set to post a total above 300.
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