As India vs Australia 2017 bilateral series starts with the first match hosted by MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai, this will be only the second time from the 22 ODIs Chepauk has hosted where India will play Australia. 30 years before, India played Australia at Madras, now known as Chennai when Chepauk hosted its first ODI match. Indians lost that 1987 World Cup group match by 1 run with 1 ball remaining. Chepauk’s ODI debut was also the debut ODI match for Navjot Singh Sidhu and Tom Moody. Overall, Aussies have won all the 4 ODIs they played at Chepauk, all during tournaments. Indians won 6 of the 12 matches they played, with 2 providing no results. 3 of these 6 wins have come in the last 4 ODIs played here. Check what happened 30 years before! With all discussion on rivalry, the last Chepauk match provided Indian instance of Gamesmanship that actually resulted in their loss.
After restricting Border’s team to 268 in 50 overs, during mid innings break Indians informed the officials that a four given was actually been a six. Irony that Indians lost just by one run.
The last match between India and Australia at Chepauk was the third match of 1987 World Cup. Allan Border led the Aussies finally to their first title while Kapil Dev could lead Indians to second consecutive semifinal. In the Group match Aussies playing under Allan Border scored 270/6 with Geoff Marsh scoring 110 runs as he added 110 runs with David Boon (49) for the first wicket. Dean Jones (39), Border (16), Tom Moody (8), Steve Waugh (19*) and Simon O’Donnell (7) were the other batsmen.
Kapil Dev (0/41 in 10) and Azharuddin (0/20 in 3 overs) went wicketless while Manoj Prabhakar (2/47), Roger Binny (1/46 in 7), Maninder Singh (1/48) and Ravi Shastri (1/50) were among the wickets.
During that era of ODI, 250+ was considered a good total. Indians still managed to almost chase it. But, with one ball, one wicket and one run remaining for India to win, Steve Waugh clean bowled Maninder Singh (4). Wicketkeeper Kiran More remained unbeaten on 12 runs.
Sunil Gavaskar (37), Srikanth (70), Sidhu (73), Vengasarkar (29), Azharuddin (10), Kapil Dev (6), Shastri (12), Binny (0), abd Prabhakar (5) were other Indian batsmen.
McDermott with 4/56 in 10 and Steve Waugh with 2/52 in 9.5 inflicted the maximum damage while Simon O’Donnell (1/32 with a maiden in 9 overs) and Bruce Reid (0/35 in 10 with 2 maidens) were the bowlers who with miser economy rate made the task tougher for Indian team where even No. 10 Prabhakar was a batsman.
The last match, 30 years ago was a thriller. If rain allows a result, Kohli-led Indian team vs Smith-led Australian team could also be a mouth-watering thriller. This is the first ODI match for Australia at Chepauk in a bilateral series.
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