It was a disastrous start for Team India in the home bilateral T20 series against Australia. In the first match held tonight, the visitors have beaten the hosts by 5 wickets in a high-total chase. While Indians shined on the batting front, bowlers failed miserably and failed to defend a huge score of 208 runs.
After winning the toss, Aussie captain Aaron Finch chose to bowl first. India lost the wickets of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli pretty early. Then, Surya Kumar Yadav (46) and KL Rahul (55) settled the innings and made a partnership of 78 runs for the third wicket. after scoring his half-century, Rahul got out. Soon, SKY also went back to the pavilion. All of a sudden, Australia turned the game. But the heroics of Hardik Pandya, in the end, assured India a high total. Hardik kept on smashing Aussie bowlers even when wickets kept falling on the other side. His sensational innings (71* off 30 balls) helped India in scoring 208/6 in 20 overs.
Australia had a perfect plan during this chase. They kept on hitting the ball right from the beginning. Skipper Aaron Finch (22) got out after giving a solid start. Later, Cameron Green (61) and Steve Smith (35) made a partnership of 70 runs for the second wicket. Then, Axar Patel (3/17) turned the game by grabbing some quick wickets. As a result, Australia’s score came down from 109/1 to 145/5.
But a solid partnership between Mathew Wade (45* off 21 balls) and Tim David (18) in the death overs assured Australia a dominating win. Indian pacers completely failed in the death overs and it is a concern for sure. In the end, Australia scored 211/6 in 19.2 overs. Cameron Green was awarded the Man of the Match. The second T20I will be held on September 23 (Friday) in Nagpur.
