Live report - India vs Australia, World Cup 2023

India might well have gained a lot more from this game for the strife they were put under.

2 for 3 meant the weakness that has hounded them in ICC tournaments lately - not enough substance in the middle order - won't play on their minds as much now.

Because that weakness is sorted. KL Rahul has come in and sorted it. He was on 91 with India needing five to win. He went for an extra cover drive. He wanted four for it but when it sailed over the rope, he went down on his haunches, wondering what could have been. He was thinking, hit four, then hit six, get the century and the win. Instead he gets just the win and walks off unbeaten on 97

Runs for Virat Kohli is always good. Knowing your gun player, your big boss, is in form is soooo freeing when you're chasing a World Cup.

R Ashwin proved his selection was worthwhile. Kuldeep Yadav offered further proof of his evolution. Jasprit Bumrah isn't bowling like he was on ice for a year with a back injury.

Many of players on whom this campaign will rest have shown they are ready today.

Australia, meanwhile, will be asked the same questions they get asked every time they come to the subcontinent. Their batters collapsed to spin. And as if that wasn't enough, the only specialist spinner that they picked for a World Cup in India began his tournament with figures of 8-0-53-0.

The galling thing for Adam Zampa is he only gave away four boundaries - three of them came in one over. That means he's been milked around for singles and twos at ease. He's never been able to build pressure. The dew in Chennai might well have hampered him, though, which actually raises questions about Australia's decision to bat having won the toss.

Australia need to find more ways to score on slow pitches; they ate up 173 dot balls in total today. Their spinners need to sit on a good length spot and keep the stumps in play. Ravindra Jadeja does that with his eyes closed, that's all he ever does, and he was the best bowler on show.

Hazlewood takes him out for 85. He should've had him for 12.

Kohli walks off to a standing ovation from 33, 120 people at Chepauk. The partnership with Rahul ends on 165, four runs short of being the highest against Australia in men's ODI World Cups.

India need 33 off 77 to win and Hardik Pandya is in

The dew is definitely playing a role in this chase. The officials have had to change the ball twice. Looks like Australia might have misread the conditions here. In March, when they played India and beat India, there was new dew. Today there is and it's made their bowlers' job a whole lot harder.

Australia had set up to score 250 today. They were 110 for 2 in the 25th over. They were on course. Then Jadeja, who wasn't actually having a good time till then, picked up three wickets in two overs.

Having been bowled out for 199, Australia sent three of India's top four back for ducks. That had never happened ever to India in their entire ODI history until today.

A score of 2 for 3 could've become 20 for 4 if they'd taken a catch offered by Virat Kohli.

It's weird. Australia aren't the team that end up going what if. They're the team that makes the other guys think what if.

Australia's spinners have bowled only nine of 28 overs. A reason for that could be dew? Or is it just all the sweat that's got on the ball preventing it from gripping into the wicket. It's a horribly humid day in Chennai and everyone is drenched.

Zampa's legbreaks did not grip at all. Maxwell's fingerspin hasn't had purchase either. Certainly nowhere near the level that Jadeja, Ashwin and Kuldeep got earlier in much drier conditions.

Both innings have progressed with the same tempo. Australia got to their hundred in the 25th over (102 for 2). India in the 26th (100 for 3)

The difference obviously is that triple-strike from Jadeja. From 110 for 2 after 27 overs, Australia fell to 119 for 5 after 30.

Australia will need to trigger that kind of collapse to bring this game back alive. But with the wet ball, they're really up against it.

Came up as an opener. Did well too. Nine fifty-plus scores in 23 ODI innings. Then his services were needed elsewhere.

India saw the potential he had as a middle-order batter. Now from 33 innings at No. 4 and 5, he's got 13 fifty-plus scores.

Outstanding transformation.

From being 2 for 3, India are 100 for 3. They need 100 more in 24 overs.

The crowd's got its voice back. Official count is 32,531. Stadium capacity is 37,000. The India flags have begun to wave again. Australia's lead spinner has leaked the first double-digit over of a game played in spin-friendly conditions and hot on the heels of that they misfield to give up a single.

The pressure they had on in the first 10 over has faded.

He's just shredded Australia's trump card.

Two late cuts. All along the ground. To balls that weren't even all that short.

In fact, the first late cut was to a front-of-the-hand, gathering-pace-off-the-pitch, kind of delivery. Shane Warne used to get people bowled with those.

Rahul, though, has one of the best cut shots in the business. It's because he seems to pick up the shorter length or even the flatter trajectory quicker than most other batters. So he's into position to cut the ball really quickly.

From there it's just a matter of contact and placement.

Zampa decided to one-up Rahul on the late cut with a googly, hoping the ball spinning into him might get a drag on or something.

But Rahul once again picked the length early, picked the way it'd be turning too, and tapped it on top of the bounce to find another boundary.

After two short balls went for runs, Zampa went back to the tossed up variety, ended up overcooking it and Rahul nailed the full toss through cover for the third four of the over.

Kohli goes down on his knees in a World Cup game played at home against Australia. Now that is a mood.

Here he's just down there at drinks, catching his breath, after clattering Cameron Green for back-to-back fours to end the 15th over. He's made 31 of India's 49 runs so far. Weirdly still no Adam Zampa.

India found themselves in almost the exact same position in the 2019 World Cup semi-final.

Their Daddy hundred scoring top-order in tatters against Trent Boult and Matt Henry in a small chase.

They went into that tournament unsure of their middle order. No. 4 was the question no one could answer. MSD was on the decline. Ravindra Jadeja dug in and played just about as well as he ever had.

But he ran out of partners and once NZ got into India's tail - which was reallllly long - it was game over.

That game turned on the middle order not knowing how to salvage a game that was going against them.

Here India have Kohli, who is an all-time great in this format, and Rahul, who has, to his great credit, reinvented himself as one of the best middle-order batters in recent times.

This is the partnership that needs to take India deep. Then they can rely on Hardik and Jadeja and Ashwin if need be.

India would've been 20 for 4 in a chase of 200! Kohli would've been gone for 12 off 27. He was 12 off 21 in that T20 World Cup game against Pakistan last year before he got going.

Hazlewood is having an amazing day. He's surprised a batter who relishes fast bowling. He's beat him for pace. Or maybe its just length. Maybe he just wasn't expecting the short ball.

All the damage has been done off a good length area with wobble seam. And Kohli was just starting to get a hang of that. Hazlewood probably clocked it and changed his length. Went short. Got it to rise ahove the batter's chest.

Kohli is slow on the pull. He top-edges the ball which goes towards square leg. There's no square leg. So Carey the wIcketkeeper runs to it. Marsh at midwicket runs to it. Carey pulls out late. Marsht has been thrown off by that and drops it

The sound coming off Virat Kohli's bat is echoing in the stadium because it is so quiet.

And this time there's an actual crowd out there, because the host nation is playing. Nowhere near a full house, but enough.

Kohli walks at Hazlewood - he's been batting outside his crease against Starc, who's bowling at 145 kph so Hazlewood's pace won't put him off.

Kohli walks at Hazlewood and even though he's not close to the pitch of the ball, even though its wide of him, he's decided he wants to shift the momentum India's way and so he basically flicks an off drive for four.

It's all wrist, and he rolls it over the top of the ball, and sends it down the ground. The crowd finally comes alive. "Koh-li! Koh-li!"

Australia are strong believers in taking the head off the snake and right now that's Kohli. If they get him cheaply, this might well be their game.

The white ball does swing.

But only for like three or so overs.

Normally that would be too small an advantage but Mitchell Starc isn't normal. He bowls 140-145 kph. He bowls full. He tends to keep the stumps in play. And he has that happy knack of getting wickets with wide balls. He's just the perfect one-day new-ball bowler. Fast. Accurate.

Josh Hazlewood doesn't swing the ball. He's all seam movement. And under lights, he's definitely getting some. He's getting both-way seam movement. That's because he's got one of the best wobble-seam balls in the business. Big, strong bowler hits the deck hard and then natural variation takes care of the rest.

Rohit's lbw happened to a ball that came down on a sixth stump line, but once it pitched, it ragged into him like an offbreak. It was wobble seam.

Virat Kohli faced a couple of those menances too. One ball cut in and hit him just below the stomach. The next straightened against the angle and almost took his outside edge. Both balls had identical releases. The seam wobbling. On the first one, the seam came up angled into the right-hander after pitching. On the second one, it came up angled towards the slips.

Natural variation at its scariest

It was bizarre enough that both openers fell for ducks. That's only happened seven times in their history, the last of which was almost 20 years ago against Zimbabwe in 2004.

Now Shreyas Iyer has followed Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan to the pavilion without adding to the score.

This is why Australia have counted on their best bowlers even though India don't present the kind of conditions they thrive on.

What a start to the chase.

Mitchell Starc is playing only his sixth ODI this year.

But the concept of rust doesn't seem to apply to him when he has the white ball in hand.

Australia need early wickets. Several early wickets here. And he's just provided one.

Ishan Kishan gone first ball. He played this game because Shubman Gill, who is the year's leading run-getter with a tally of 1230, is down with dengue.

Gill was a HUGE loss and its been shown as such, even though India's bowlers mitigated that with their work earlier in the day.

Six wickets for the spinners as well. Ravindra Jadeja picked all three of his in the space of two overs. Kuldeep showed just how much of an improved threat he is, bowling quicker through the air. That extra speed meant even someone with the fast hands of Glenn Maxwell couldn't adjust and got bowled playing the cross-bat shot. R Ashwin, who was nowhere near this squad even just a month ago, was pretty special too. He gave away only one run to right-handers on the off side in his entire spell. Jasprit Bumrah looked like the Jasprit Bumrah of old. Still fast. Still fully in control. Still a complete menace.

Australia were 50 for 1 in the 11th over. They were 110 for 2 in the 25th. They've crumbled to 199 all out.

Dot ball leaderboard

Bumrah (2 for 35): 41 out of 60
Jadeja (3 for 28): 38 out of 60
Ashwin (1 for 34): 32 out of 60
Kuldeep (2 for 42): 31 out of 60
Siraj (1 for 26): 26 out of 39

Bumrah's not been the story today, but his presence matters. He picked up the first wicket. He got it in the third over of the game. His control to drop that ball on a dime on that 6m mark in line with the stumps, especially on slow pitches, where it's hard to use his pace and score square of the wicket keeps building pressure.

This is the old Bumrah. His pace is up. His yorkers are landing. That injury is the past. India - just because of him alone - are massive contenders for this tournament.

They were 50 for 1 in 10.4 overs.

They're in the last ten now and their total is still only in the 160s

Bumrah has gone at just 2 an over-ish. Ashwin and Jadeja at 3 an over-ish.

If this had been a normal bilateral game, Australia might have tried to upset India's spinners, to take them off their spots with some sweeps or something.

But with it being a World Cup, with them being 110 for 2 at one point, they chose to play the waiting game.

Then Jadeja got those three wickets - Smith, Labuschagne and Carey - in two overs and they were sunk. They had no more batting left.

Ashwin helps himself to a wicket and its with a ball that he is growing increasingly fond of. The reverse carrom ball.

He flicks it out with his ring finger - the carrom ball comes out the middle - and as it goes down to meet the pitch, the seam is angled into the right-hander. Almost like an inswinger.

Marnus Labuschagne got done by a ball like that in the bilateral series that confirmed Ashwin's spot in this tournament. Cam Green's turn here.

The thing is, though this ball moves into the right-hander in the air, once it pitches it decks away. No idea why. But it does. It straightens. Green isn't expecting that. He's backing away to cut, thinking the ball will keep coming into him, but when it doesn't, he's left reaching away from his body, he's lost all his power, and he ends up popping a simple catch to point

The new Kuldeep Yadav.

The biiiiiiig change he's made is figuring out how he can bowl quick without giving up his strength of turning the ball.

A shining example of all the work he's put in since 2019, through injury and the setback of being dropped, is on show in the 36th over as he dismisses Glenn Maxwell and leaves Australia at 140 for 6.

Maxwell is known for playing outrageous shots. Like a full blooded pull to a ball is nowhere near short. That's the shot he's going for here except this one is on him too quick. Kuldeep has worked so hard to take out a batter in this fashion; to beat them for pace, and the man he's taken out is one of the world's best spin-hitters with maybe the fastest hands in the game.

Man, that's just dreams coming true.

When Maxwell is just 14 off 22 with one solitary boundary, you know something's wrong. Both he and Green are fully conscious of the fact that they are the last recofnised batting pair.

So they're taking zero risks. They're banking on being there for as much of these 50 overs as possible and maybe then they might get 230-240.

Elsewhere, Rohit Sharma is doing his bit to keep the good times going. He knows Glenn Maxwell is a spin-hitter. He knows taking him out would be terrible wound on the Australian batting line-up right now. So he brings back his gun fast bowler. Jasprit Bumrah.

Jadeja's fifth and sixth two overs

Australia got to their 50 in 64 balls. They needed a further 81 to get to their hundred. At the time they were 100 for 2 in 25th over. Now they're 119 for 5 in the 30th over. They're both slowing down and losing wickets

The second wicket in that Jadeja over is bonkers. He's bowling around the wicket to the left-hander. It's an lbw. So to pitch the ball in line with the stumps and still hit them, he needs to get a lot going his way. He needs to properly rip the ball so it really straightens against the angle.

Carey played for that angle, plonking his front pad right in line with the stumps. Then when he realised the ball was turning, he tried to get his bat around it; tried his very best to meet the ball before it signals his end. But this time it's Jadeja's quicker delivery. When he goes lbw, he's always quick. And it beads Carey for both pace and turn.

So many skills for 'just' a fingerspinner.

That puts Smith on top of the pile, except its the kind of pile no batter wants to be part of.

So this happened a while ago. Same guy who made it in during India's tour of England in 2021 as well and got arrested for it. Clearly it hasn't been the deterrent everybody thought it'd be.

Anyway, back to the cricket

He's the local boy. He won CSK the IPL title earlier this year. He led the team talk at the huddle at the start of the game and now he's cuh-lean bowled Australia's best better

Jadeja began his spell bowling really quick. Almost 100kph. And that worked to Australia's advantage. He gave eight runs in his first over, but since then, he's gone 3.1-0-7-1.

The reason for that is because he's been willing to drop his pace on occasion. The wicket ball was only 91 kph. Earlier in the day, a 92 kph ball sucked Smith into a mis-hit drive that almost ended up caught at long-off.

Every time Jadeja has slowed it down, he's created problems, but there's more to that. The reason those problems have come about is because those slower deliveries are surprise balls.

He's sneaking them in between 100kph balls, which are the ones the batters are expecting

Rotating strike has been hard against these two on a slow pitch because they've been so accurate. They're turning it both ways. They haven't given up the stumps. They aren't bowling short or bowling half-volleys.

This is Ashwin's grid map of lines and lengths. Not one short. Not one down leg. Everything concentrated on that 4-6m mark that isn't easily drivable. For six overs he hasn't allowed a single run to the right-hander on the off side.

And this is Kuldeep's grid map. Pretty much the same. Nothing short. Nothing wide. Nothing drivable. All on that good length spot from where he turns it both ways.

This is how the pressure built on Warner. That partnership was going okay, but it wasn't really flowing because it was hard to knock Ashwin and Kuldeep around.

Ravindra Jadeja comes on and because he bowls quicker through the air and only turns one way, he's much easier to knock around

For so long, Yuzvendra Chahal was India's frontline wristspinner. They can't accommodate both him and Kuldeep in the XI because they need batting depth.

They're both great friends and when they play together they're always in each other's ears. There are so many pictures out there of them canoodling on a cricket field that their partners might have reason to be jealous.

Wherever Chahal is, he might be leaping about, celebrating this wicket that has brought India back into the game.

Beautiful stuff from Kuldeep. He tosses it up nice and high. But that alone isn't enough. You need to put revs on it. That's how the ball does things in the air. Things like drift and dip.

This ball seemed drivable and so Warner went on the drive. But about 3/4 of the way through, it began to sneak into the left-hander, and drop short of him too. A half-volley turned that he thought he could punch through the off side turned into the one that he just tamely pops back to the bowler.

Dip and drift. Dip meant Warner couldn't reach the ball where it pitched and smother the spin. Drift meant the ball hit the inside half of the bat instead of the middle.

Everyone, me included, has been obsessing over Australia's lack of spin bowlers.

But over the course of the first 15 innings here against India, they have kicked up a brand new conversation.

These guys play spin pretty well! At least in white-ball cricket. And unlike other teams, their batters aren't afraid to do things out of their comfort zone.

David Warner, in the 14th over against R Ashwin, just came down the track and lofted him over cover. His great mate is up in the commentary box, Aaron Finch, and he points out how rare that is.

Warner's strengths against spin is his back foot play and his ability to sweep. Here he was happy to do things differently because he knows Australia have to capitalise every time India err.

On that occasion, Ashwin erred by tossing it up a little more than usual. And Warner was good enough to pounce. He didn't stand on ceremony that his game isn't about coming down the track and whacking.

Steven Smith has been chugging along at the other end. Glenn Maxwell is waiting in the wings and he is genuine top-draw spin-hitter. Cameron Green can use his height and his reach to mess with spinners' lengths. Alex Carey has a range of sweeps to do that.

Unless the surface turns square - which Chennai won't right now, it's a great toss that they've won - this line-up can put up a really big score.

Ashwin was nowhere near this ODI team even as recently as earlier this month. Now he's playing a World Cup.

He's one of only two players in the squad who knows what its like to be an ODI world champion. And more than that, he is so good at tailoring his game to the conditions on offer.

Early on, from the end Siraj was bowling, he was taking bits of the surface up with him. Some of his balls were keeping low as well.

Ashwin comes on from that end. Australia by now are conditioned not to expect bounce from here. But he sows doubt into their minds straight away.

Smith faces one that Ashwin delivers with a square seam. It lands directly on a crack and because it is the seam that lands on the crack - Ashwin could easily have intended for that to happen - it kicks up at Smith.

Creating uncertainty is how bowlers take wickets in limited-overs cricket. And nobody does that better than R Ashwin.

My lil bro Deivarayan Muthu is at the ground and he's been tracking

the other Ashwin

There's an unmistakable buzz around R Ashwin's homecoming, with his family also in the stands. But did you know that there was another R Ashwin involved in the build-up to this India vs Australia game at Chepauk?

His full name is also Ravichandran Ashwin (yes, you read that right)

Wait, the similarities don't end there.

The other Ashwin also went to the same school and college that the Ashwin did.

But the other Ashwin bowls left-arm wristspin and plays league cricket in Chennai. Australia had roped him in as a net bowler to tune their batters up for Kuldeep Yadav's left-arm wristspin. Two days out of the game, Maxwell had a fairly long stint against the other Ashwin, having been dismissed by wristspinners Shadab Khan and Shariz Ahmad in the warm-ups.

The other Ashwin is the son of former TN cricketer G Ravichandran and has attended trials with IPL sides in the past.

Very hot day in Chennai. India's support staff are waiting on the boundaries where the fast bowlers are fielding and they're dumping ice-cold towels on their necks.

India's captain has just whisked his No. 1 seamer off after a three-over full-tilt spell and gone to Hardik Pandya. And this is what happens.

This feels like a plan. Hardik is not a frontline seamer. This is not a seamer-friendly pitch. Australia cannot let him sneak in quiet overs.

Sampath Bandarupalli from out stats team pings:

Fastest to 1000 runs in men's ODI World Cup: (in innings)
19 - David Warner
20 - Sachin Tendulkar
20 - AB de Villiers
21 - Viv Richards
21 - Sourav Ganguly

India have a fun fast bowling attack.

This is Jassi's first over. And it was so typical of him. The first ball beat the left-hander, producing both swing and seam. He didn't get carried away by that. Just stacked em all up on a good length, where it wasn't easy to drive or look to power away with a horizontal bat

Siraj is a different bowler. He relies on swing a lot more. So that boundary up there, that was a result of his angling one across the left-hander but willing it to cut into him. It didn't cut into him. It was just cut to the fence. From there, Siraj pulled his length back, and India too shifted their plans. Two slips became one slip and the extra catcher went to short midwicket

Now the breakthrough. It is so Bumrah. He doesn't go searching for wickets. All he does is bowl ball after ball that just can't be turned into runs. Marsh was 0 off 5. He wasn't getting any release. He saw one that was maybe a hint wider outside off stump than Bumrah's usual line and thoguht okay, there's a dab to third man.

But the whole reason that ball was wider was because Bumrah wanted it to seam in and seam in it did. Worse, it bounced extra. It surprised Marsh. It cramped him. And he gets caught at slip with the ball almost running off the full face of the angled bat.

The desperation to score, the unhittable lines and lengths, made that dismissal possible.

He missed the T20 World Cup last year and India were knocked out by a team that basically treated their bowling attack like a ragdoll.

Of all the stars in this team, there is only one that cannot be replaced. Jasprit Bumrah. India have been waiting patiently for him to return to fitness from a back injury. And while its been a frustrating time, the thing with the bodies of fast bowlers is that, sometimes, once they survive a setback like that, they turn superhuman. Pat Cummins used to break down like that a lot when he was young and still growing into his frame. Now he barely gets injured.

This could be the start of a great journey for Bumrah.

Just as it might be the beginning of the end for David Warner. Imagine playing for your country before you've played for your state in a first-class game. It still beggars belief just how good he had to be to make that happen. But he doesn't rest on that. He is always looking for an edge; something that makes him horrible to bowl at. Not that long ago, he took to playing right-handed against the offspin of R Ashwin just so the ball would turn into him instead of away from him.

Warner thrives when the chips are down; when people write him off. He rocked up to his 100th Test and flipped the narrative from 'you need to retire' to 'all hail the conquering hero'. Not a lot of people are picking him to be the batter to be wary of in this World Cup so that automatically makes him the one to be wary of.

Rohit Sharma tosses the coin clean off the screen. And then wears a sheepish grin as the match referee goes round to check what's come up.

Australia have won a crucial toss here. Scoreboard pressure will matter because conditions here will get harder to bat on with wear and tear. That's shown in the results in Chennai

Confirmation that both Gill and Stoinis are missing out.

India: Rohit, Kishan, Kohli, Shreyas, Rahul (wk), Hardik, Jadeja, Ashwin, Kuldeep, Bumrah, Siraj

Australia: Warner, Marsh, Smith, Labuschagne, Maxwell, Carey (wk), Green, Cummins, Starc, Zampa, Hazlewood

They've won the World Test Championship this year.

Then they went and retained the Ashes away from home.

Now they're at the tournament where they turn mythical.

Australia in World Cups are basically Taylor Swift. Love em or hate em, you can't take your eyes off em.

The thing with this team though is they're likely to go into every match with fewer overs of spin than the opposition.

Today, for example, on a black soil Chennai pitch, which tends to produce slow, low turners, they can bank on 10 overs from Adam Zampa, the highest wicket-taker, among Full Members, between this World Cup and the last.

And they say they're banking on 10 overs from Glenn Maxwell as well, who is definitely a much improved bowler and a fierce competitor.

But it is hard to ignore the feeling that they're doing what India did at the 2021 World Test Championship final. They picked their best team without really paying a lot of mind to the conditions on offer and NZ beat them simply because they had more seam options in their starting XI.

In conditions that help spin, even part-timers can run through sides, so maybe Maxwell might do that here, but the fact remains, India have 30 overs of spin available to them. Australia only 20.

That equation tilts even further if India pick both KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer in their XI. Those two are middle-overs bosses. They absolutely will not let a spinner bowl six balls in the same spot.

India will not have that agenda-setter in their line-up today. He has not recovered from a bout of dengue.

It still speaks to the depth of talent they have available that one ODI double-centurion goes out, another ODI double-centurion takes his place. Ishan Kishan is now all but certain to open the batting alongside Rohit Sharma and while he hasn't shown the same kind of consistency, the shots he plays and the areas he accesses, particularly square of the wicket on both sides, will make him a different kind of headache for Australia's bowlers. Variety like that will be important in world tournaments.

Rohit Sharma is a veeeeeery chillllllll guy… except when it comes to his cricket.

It is remarkable how much detail goes into his game. He tailors his training to bat 50 overs. It isn't about muscle with him. It's endurance. So he sat down with the support staff and worked out a way that brought the best out of him.

He values data. He believes it helps set up a game but in case it starts going away from him, then he doesn't mind indulging in instinct. It's the formula that's got him more IPL titles than he has limbs on his body. It's the reason India have trusted him with this World Cup campaign.

Pat Cummins is a veeeeeeeery chilllllllll guy... except all of a sudden he became the Australian captain.

Back when the team was still navigating a rift between themselves and their coach, with plenty of outside interference, Cummins made a statement that was like the mic drop to end all mic drops.

Justin Langer was being ousted despite winning a T20 World Cup and his old team-mates had turned up to back him, while not necessarily knowing what was happening within the dressing room.

Immediately people began to take sides. Cummins didn't wade into that muck. He just said, "to all past players, I want to say this: Just as you have always stuck up for your mates, I'm sticking up for mine."

Now picture being a player and hearing your captain say that for you. And not just to the general public but to legends like Matt Hayden and Ricky Ponting and all those guys who have been there done that. If your captain had the courage to stand up for you like that, would you not die for them?

Two incredible leaders will walk out when its time for this game to start. My name is Alagappan Muthu and I’m glad I get to watch cricket in their era.

Two of the greatest teams of modern times, with a storied past against each other, meet at a venue steeped in cricket history. Sambit Bal, ESPNcricinfo’s editor-in-chief sets the scene to what promises to be a riveting contest.

Here’s a sneak peek: For those who know their cricket, India vs Australia is a whole new feeling. Over the last two decades, they have been the worthiest of opponents, producing epic, gladiatorial, astonishing, and unforgettable contests. In many ways, it's a sporting rivalry of the purest kind, based mainly on the quality of the cricket, the performances it has extracted and the memories it has created.

Lining up to enter the MA Chidambaram Stadium, you'd suspect. Four games into the World Cup, the one prominent question hogging social media has been about the sparse crowd so far. The opening fixture between England and New Zealand hardly had anyone coming in at the start, though the Ahmedabad stadium did get a decent crowd as the evening progressed.

Can be absolutely sure no such thing will happen in Chennai today. The stands will be packed to the rafters. The air will crackle with anticipation, but there'll be a tinge of anxiety too, for this is India's first match in a home World Cup that they start as favourites.