Having scalped the prize wicket of Sachin Tendulkar for a duck while defending their impressive 307, Australian captain Adam Gilchrist had every reason to believe his team had a better chance of winning the first game and go 1-0 up in a seven-match series. But rain delivered an unkind cut to the Aussie aspirations.
"We felt we were in a pretty good position. Obviously 300 is very gettable these days. I am not saying we had the game wrapped up, but I thought we were in a very competitive position in the sense that we had Sachin out for zero and thought the wicket suited our bowling type," said Gilchrist after the match was abandoned due to the wet ground conditions.
Glichrist admitted he was ready to continue with the game despite the umpires deeming the conditions unfit for play. "We obviously wanted to play. Basically that's what the discussion was.
“The umpires were discussing if I was happy to field in those conditions, which I was. But the umpires and the match referee thought it to be unfit to play. That's what the decision was and that's what we will go by," he said.
On the new ODI rules, which were applied from this game, the left-hander said it was hard to comment upon them "especially when we didn't field."
"We had to work out three fielders as opposed to two in the power plays. But I guess it didn't make any drastic change (when India fielded). It will add another little dimension to the game that will add a bit of intrigue as to what captains think and what they want to do," he elaborated.
Free-hit rule
He also felt that the free-hit for front-foot no-ball will help eradicate no-balls.
Centurion Michael Clarke thought his effort was a bit of a waste in the sense that it didn't make any difference to the result. "The good thing about my innings was, I was able to spend some time in the middle. Face the Indian bowlers which is going to help throughout the tournament and the rest of the summer. So certainly there are some positives," he reasoned.
But the 26-year-old said it was great to come back to a place where he made a century on his Test debut. "It's obviously a great place (Bangalore) to come back after having made such a good debut in Tests."
The teams now travel to Kochi for the second match of the series on October 2.
However, with wet weather persisting in Kerala, there is a chance that the Kochi game might go the same way as the Bangalore one.
