Australia kicked off their tour of India by winning the first T20 International on the last ball of the match.
In a classic low-scoring thriller, the visitors stayed vigilant and successfully chased the paltry 126 posted by the star-studded Indian batting order. Aaron Finch elected to field after winning the toss and his bowlers responded brilliantly, as they consistently chipped the wickets away to keep the batsman down.
Rohit Sharma was dismissed early into the innings, when he had only scored 5 runs. The partnership between Lokesh Rahul and Virat Kohli looked promising, until Nathan Coulter-Nile’s clean catch sent the latter off at 24. In the very next over, Jason Behrendorff ran out Rishabh Pant, leaving Mahendra Singh Dhoni to steady the ship for the umpteenth time in his career.
Rahul batted his way to another half-century and lost his wicket to Coulter-Nile, shortly after. Coulter-Nile rattled Dinesh Karthik’s woodwork in the same over and dismissed Krunal Pandya in his succeeding over. The Indian innings never recovered and Dhoni could only manage a single six in his 29 that came off 37 balls.
India did well to defend their score from the beginning of the chase. Marcus Stoinis fell short of the crease in the 12th ball of the innings, and Jasprit Bumrah got Finch plumb on his pads in the 13th. Glenn Maxwell played sensibly alongside D’Arcy Short, knitting a crucial partnership of 84, before the innings started to crumble again.
The Australian batsmen were found wanting in an intelligent and economical spell from Pandya. However, it was Bumrah’s magnificence in the 19th over that took India to the cusp of victory. He bowled yorker after yorker, strangling the batsmen, and returned impressive match figures of 16/3.
Australia needed 14 runs to win in the last over. Pat Cummins and Jhye Richardson scored seven each, as Umesh Yadav disappointed the crowd at Vishakapatnam. With the series set up perfectly, Kohli will be determined to set the record straight at Bangalore on Wednesday.
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