A sour sip to match Perth’s damp squib

It wasn’t that bad, but Mitchell Marsh’s facial expressions as he gulped down the gel-like substance that was brought out to him for cramps kind of summed up the first ODI of the series in Perth. Australia’s ODI captain had, by then, nearly sealed off a very facile run-chase in wet and dreary conditions at the Perth Stadium. But he did seem obviously disgusted by the pickle juice substitute that was offered to him by the team physio and substitute Marnus Labuschagne, even yelling, “what the f^@% was that” as he soon as he took a sip. Later, Marsh would joke about how he expected it to be a sugar cube and wasn’t prepared for simply how bitter the juice was.

Much like how the start of the series was built up to be the perfect sugar hit before it turned out largely to be a damp squib. At least we got enough cricket for it to constitute a match. But it’s highly unlikely that the 26-over contest on Sunday between the most recent 50-over World Cup finalists will register long enough in anyone’s memories. Nor should it.

The major narrative in the build-up to this tightly-packed series had centred massively around two men. The 42,000-odd spectators who braved the weather and filled up Perth Stadium did get a sighting of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma straight away. Ironically that was the only period of play where the sun actually made an appearance. Unfortunately for the fans though, their stint in the middle was even more fleeting than the Perth sun. In and out within the seventh over of India’s innings.

Spare a thought for the early risers in India then. Maybe most of them were still in bed on Sunday morning by the time Kohli was snaffled by Cooper Connolly at backward point for a 8-ball 0. That came on the back of Rohit having been nicked off by Josh Hazlewood a couple of overs earlier after a highly unconvincing stay in the middle.

If anything, the only memorable aspect of the match itself was the fiery burst from Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc with the new-balls on a characteristically bouncy Perth pitch. Ominous signs perhaps for the Ashes opener scheduled to start here in just over a month’s time.

Though Nathan Ellis did get a wicket with his first ball, strangling new captain Shubman Gill down the leg-side, the sight of him running into bowl seemed to weirdly be the harbinger for the rain. Each of his first three overs coincided with a rain break, the first interruption the shortest followed by two chunky periods of no play. The game went from a 49-over contest post the first break down to 35-overs-a-side and then 32 each before finally settling in on 26 overs per team. By this time, the skies had turned greyer than they had been for the longest part of the day. But thankfully the rains finally had moved on.

The shortened nature of the match did at least produce some big-hitting with KL Rahul and Marsh both striking a few eye-catching sixes. A couple of them over the covers, off back and front foot, from the Australian captain in particular which will stay in the highlights reel for a while this summer. Probably the only significant memory that you’re likely to take away from what transpired on Sunday in Perth. About an ODI which is likely to go down in history as one that we’ll look back and go “what the f@#& was that”, to quote Mitchell Marsh.