Indians are finally back on the winning track. They were in terrific from the start till the end of the game. Indian batsmans were posted a amazing target of 189 for the Australians. Virat Kohli continued his brilliant form in the T20Is with an unbeaten 90 off just 55 balls. Raina is back in form after played a Syed trophy in India. Raina scored 41 runs in 34 balls. Dhoni promoted himself to bat instead of Yuvraj. He started his innings with a six and four. Australian team started their chasing and looked in contention for the chase until the first 10 overs. But, Indian spinners removed the Australian middle orders to set up a emphatic 37 runs victory for India.
Scorecard :
IND 188/3 (20)
V Kohli 90(55) | Bumrah 23/3
AUS 151/10 (19.3)
A Finch 44(33) | Watson 24/2
Result : India won by 37 runs.
Man of the Match : Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli was awarded as the Man of the Match for his brilliant knock of 90 off just 55 balls. At the post-match presentation, Virat Kohli said,‘I really like playing here, would like to take the pitch to everywhere I go. Our T20 World Cup preparation starts from here, we will go on from this game. It was a good batting strip, the ball came nicely onto the bat, I could play my shots. The crowd have been brilliant as well, they have supported us very well right throughout the tour.’
After India wins the match, Ms Dhoni came with a smile to speak. At the presentation, Ms Dhoni Said,‘I thought the bowling was good. Nehra was excellent coming back, the only way to win against Australia is by taking wickets, I think the bowlers did well in that regard. Rohit gave us a great start, Kohli and Raina batted beautifully. It was tough on Raina and Yuvraj, they had just one session of practice, that’s why I promoted myself ahead of Yuvraj. There was pressure on Pandya, it was his first over and that got to him. He did well coming back later on, got his yorkers and wide deliveries right. If he does well, it will be a huge plus for us – he gives us plenty of depth as an all-rounder.
Australian captain Aaron Finch started the innings with a great start but they failed to chase. Aaron Finch said,‘We let ourselves down in the field, an unbelievable innings from Kohli. We were surprised with the amount of spin, but we had eight batsmen plus Faulkner, at the end of the day, we had the batsmen to chase it down. I thought we bowled well, might have conceded 10-15 runs too many. 170 would have been a slightly easier chase, the ball stopped a bit under lights and one or two batsmen failed to adapt to the surface.’
The second T20I match of the three match series will be play at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on friday.