Perth, Oct. 19 -- Valuable contributions from KL Rahul, Axar Patel and Nitish Kumar Reddy took India to a modest 136/9 in a rain-curtailed 26-over-per-side first ODI against Australia at Perth on Sunday.

While an underwhelming show by top-order, Rohit Sharma (8), Shubman Gill (10), Virat Kohli (0) and Shreyas Iyer (11) put India in trouble at 45/4, it was KL (38 in 31 balls, with two fours and two sixes) and Axar's (31 in 38 balls, with three fours) 39-run stand that provided some stability. It was some late blitz from Nitish (19* in 11 balls, with two sixes) that took India past the 130-run mark.

After Australia opted to bowl first on winning the toss, Indian openers Rohit Sharma and skipper Shubman Gill were off to a slow start, despi...