The Indians stopped
the Aussies in their tracks at Kolkata in the second Test match and then went
on to overpower them in the final Test at Chennai. Australians have been drained
emotionally and physically after the highly charged three Test series, which
they lost narrowly to India. M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, was the venue
for the first match in the five ODI series. Saurav Ganguly won the toss on Sunday
afternoon and elected to bat first in the day and night encounter. India and
Australia made changes to their One-Day International sides. Virendra Shewag,
Hemang Badani, Ajit Agarkar and Javagal Srinath came into the Indian team. Australia
brought in their ODI specialists Damien Martyn, Michael Bevan, Damien Fleming
and Ian Harvey to add strength to the side. Matthew Hayden's impressive Test
performance earned him a recall into the ODI team.