Chahal challenges Smith's review

Indian spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has challenged Steve Smith's claim that Australia's rain-reduced run chase in the first ODI in Chennai put the tourists at a disadvantage.

A two-hour rain delay at Chepauk Stadium after India had posted 7-281 from their 50 overs meant the Australians were set a victory target of 164 in 21 overs.

But while 164 is well within reach in a normal T20 game, Smith said the fact that two balls are used in one-day internationals - as opposed to one in T20s - made their task a lot more difficult on a surface that favoured the new ball.

"I think 160 with one new ball would have made things a lot easier," Smith said.

"When you've got a new ball from both ends, as we saw throughout the whole game, it was a new-ball wicket. We took wickets with the new ball, they found it quite hard (to bat against it) and it was the same for us.

"When you're playing 20 overs, you don't really have a great deal of time to make things up when you need eight an over basically from ball one.

"It was difficult in that aspect.

"You can't control the weather ... you've just got to get on with it.

"We weren't good enough tonight."

But Chahal, who finished with 3-30 from five overs as India won by 26 runs, said it was Australia who had been advantaged by the shortened match.

"If they would have won then they could have said that (two new balls) was a plus point because the ball came on nicely to the bat," he said.

"Our minus point was that we had to bowl 10 overs each with a new ball. We bowled well, so whether it's a new or old ball, it doesn't matter.

"Australia had an advantage in the 20-over game, because the rule was not for a 20-over game and the extra fielder was always in the inner circle.

"But the plus (for India) was that the wicket was turning and the way our medium-pacers bowled at the start helped us put pressure on them from the very beginning. We never allowed them to get into the game."

A rule change in 2011 saw the introduction two balls, to be used for 25 overs each, in ODIs instead of just one white ball that would often lose its shine and hardness early in an innings. With the game drifting further in favour of batsmen, the change was made to encourage more attacking fast bowling early in an innings.

And Australian Nathan Coulter-Nile delivered just that on Sunday, bowling with impressive pace and early swing to remove Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli and Manish Pandey in the space of just seven balls to leave the hosts reeling at 3-11 after they'd elected to bat first.

India's quicks delivered a similarly probing opening burst as Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and man-of-the-match Hardik Pandya helped to remove debutant opener Hilton Cartwright, Smith and Travis Head for single-figure scores inside the first seven overs.

Smith conceded that his top order could have approached the short run chase with additional caution to allow for more aggression when the two balls got older later in the innings.

"Perhaps we could have been a little bit more defensive at the start and tried to keep a few more wickets in hand and then go a bit harder," he said.

"But hindsight is a wonderful thing."

Smith added he considered tinkering with his batting line-up when the match was reduced, but backed new boy Cartwright (who was bowled for one from eight balls) to deliver on debut.

"I did think about it, but I thought it was a good opportunity for Hilton to get out there and into the game," he said.

"It was probably the hardest time to bat, against the new ball.

"It didn't come off tonight but hopefully he can rectify that and score some runs for us in the next one."

Australia will fly to Kolkata on Monday ahead of the second match of the series at Eden Gardens on Thursday.

Australia's Qantas Tour of India

Australia ODI squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Ashton Agar, Hilton Cartwright, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Patrick Cummins, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa.

Australia T20 squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Jason Behrendorff, Dan Christian, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Patrick Cummins, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa.

India squad (first three ODIs): Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami.

ODI Fixtures

September 17: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai

September 21: Eden Gardens, Kolkata

September 24: Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore

September 28: M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru

October 1: VCA Stadium, Nagpur

T20 Fixtures

October 7: JSCA International Stadium, Ranchi

October 10: Barsapara Stadium, Guwahati

October 13: Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad