India VS Australia T20I: Cameron Green and Matthew Wade star for the visitors as they record a big win in the first T20I
India is officially on the road to the T20 World Cup. However, if the first of three T20Is against Australia was anything to go by, it is that the route ahead will continue to be filled with speed bumps
Wade : Great FinishThe match, which took place at the PCA Stadium in Mohali on Tuesday (September 20), saw Australia register a comfortable four-wicket victory to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
India will have no one but themselves to blame for this defeat. Put in to bat after Aaron Finch won the toss; the hosts made a respectable 208-6 in their 20 overs.
Chasing more than 200 is rarely, if ever, easy, yet Australia finished the match with four balls to spare. To make things worse, they only needed two runs in the final.
The numbers don’t make for good reading if you’re an Indian player or fan. With four overs left, Australia needed 55 to win and had just lost two big wickets – Steve Smith (35 off 24 balls) and Glenn Maxwell (1 off three balls).
To make things better, Axar Patel had accounted for the big-hitting Cameron Green (61 off 30 balls) and even got the first breakthrough for the hosts when he removed skipper Finch.
Yet a quickfire 17 from Josh Engils – who was Axar’s third and final victim of the night – as well as crucial knocks from Matthew Wade (45*) and Tim David (18 off 14 balls) was enough to seal the deal for the visitors.
It gets worse. Besides Axar, no Indian bowler had an economy under 10. Axar’s figures were magnificent: 4-0-17-3. The rest? Not so much.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s woes in the death continued. He scored 52 runs in his four overs, with 31 coming in his final two overs.
Harshal Patel, back in the squad after an injury lay-off, looked off-rhythm and one-dimensional. His final over yielded 22 runs, meaning he finished the night having given away 49 runs.
Yuzvendra Chahal, who’s struggled since the Asia Cup, returned measly figures of 1-42 in 3.2 overs. Hardik Pandya got no wickets for 22 runs – in 2 overs.
Umesh Yadav, playing a T20I for the first time since 2019, went for 27 runs in his two overs. He did get two key wickets of Smith and Maxwell but didn’t bowl a ball after the over where he got the breakthroughs.
It didn’t have to end this way. India’s batting and delivery, even with failures from skipper Rohit Sharma (11 off 9) and Virat Kohli (2).
KL Rahul hit a magnificent 55, whereas Suryakumar Yadav looked at his resplendent best during his 25-ball 46. And Pandya looked every bit the hard-hitting batsman people know he can be.
His 71 off 30 balls laid the foundation for India to cross the 200-run mark. Yet, in the end, even an asking rate of over ten and over from the get-go wasn’t enough.
The second T20I takes place at Nagpur on Friday (September 23). And it is hard to see how the hosts can bounce back from a defeat of this scale.