Today 26th of January happened to be the Indian Republic Day and Australia Day as well. The first of the three T20 encounters between India and host Australia was played today in Adelaide. Indians were pretty confident after their win in the last one day match.
Australia won the toss and put India into bat. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, both of whom are in excellent form started the innings. In the first over of the match, Rohit hit Shaun Tait for a boundary and six, Tait bowled very fast, his first ball clocked 150 kph, but since he was not accurate today, his speed became useful to the batsmen and they scored of him.
In the first four overs India scored 40 runs. Most of the runs were made by Rohit Sharma. However when Shane Watson came to bowl in the fifth over he picked up the wicket of Rohit in the first ball. Rohit mistimed the shot and he was picked up by the fielder at mid on. Although Watson was slower than the other two fast bowlers who bowled before him, he was far more effective than them, simply because a bowled better line and length.
In the same over Watson picked up the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan of a ball which was a disguised slower bouncer. He tried to direct the bouncer over the head of keeper but was deceived by the lack of pace and ended up giving an easy catch to Wade. Watson thus gave only one run in the fifth over and picked up both the openers. This slowed India's scoring rate.
At number four Raina came to bat. He did manage to score runs but was not really his fluent self, at times Raina struggled with the short pitched stuff. On the other side Virat was going hammer and tongs on all the Australian bowlers, hitting them at will. Except for Shane Watson, all bowlers conceded lots of runs to the Indian total. Australia failed to pick up regular wickets and this helped Indian batsmen to get their eye in and then score big. In the later part of the innings even Raina scored briskly.
India lost its third wicket in the last over. Dhoni came into bat and hit a helicopter shot of the first ball he faced over midwicket for a six. The next ball was hit over point for a four, this shot fell a few inches away from the rope. Dhoni scored 11 runs of the three balls he faced by picking a single of the fifth ball of the over. India ended up with a score of 188, with man of the match Virat Kohli scoring a lightning 90 of 55 balls.
Australia too started their innings at a blitzkrieg pace. While the first over went for just 5 runs, in the next over bowled by Ashwin, 17 runs were scored. Australians kept scoring fast till Bhumrah was introduced into the attack. Warner tried to pull a ball that Bhumrah bowled way outside the offstump, but he ended up giving Kohli an easy catch.
Steve Smith came into bat and the scoring rate continued to be fast. When Pandya came to bowl, he ended up bowling five wides in an over and that over went for 19 runs. However the game turned when Steve Smith was caught by Kohli off Ravindra Jadeja's bowling and after that carnage followed for Australia.
The next over was bowled by Ashwin, he decided to bowl round the wicket. The first ball he bowled in his second over, he appealed for a LBW. However the umpire didn't give it and told Ashwin that he was not able to see anything since Ashwin blocked his view in his follow through.
Ashwin rectified this in the next ball, the umpire had a better view this time and adjuged Finch LBW. After this Australia's scoring rate came down and at the same time they kept losing wickets at regular intervals.
The Aussie batsmen were constantly under pressure since none of them had time to get their eye in. They had to go for their shots and fell to some high quality spin bowling of Ashwin and Jadeja. The spin duo picked up 2 wickets each.
Ashwin who went for 17 runs in his first over gave just 11 of next 3 overs, picking up 2 wickets at the same time as well. Pandya came in to bowl in his second spell and even he ended up getting a couple of wickets. Every Indian bowler got wickets except Yuvraj who bowled just one over.
Australia were all out for 151 runs, Bhumrah picked up 3 wickets and the last wicket was also picked by him. This gave India a victory with a nice margin of 37 runs.
The major difference between the two teams was the ability to pick up wickets. While Australia were not able to take wickets. The much criticized Indian bowling bowled the entire Aussie side out. This is the first occasion after 2012 that an entire Australian side has been bowled out in a T20 encounter in Australia.
From an Indian cricket fan's point of view, this is a heartwarming performance. One just hopes that Team India continues such performances in the next two T20 matches as well.
After losing the one day series, it would be wonderful to see India win the T20 series against Australia. It would be a great confidence booster for the Indian team keeping in mind that in March, T20 World Cup will be played in India.
Australia won the toss and put India into bat. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, both of whom are in excellent form started the innings. In the first over of the match, Rohit hit Shaun Tait for a boundary and six, Tait bowled very fast, his first ball clocked 150 kph, but since he was not accurate today, his speed became useful to the batsmen and they scored of him.
In the first four overs India scored 40 runs. Most of the runs were made by Rohit Sharma. However when Shane Watson came to bowl in the fifth over he picked up the wicket of Rohit in the first ball. Rohit mistimed the shot and he was picked up by the fielder at mid on. Although Watson was slower than the other two fast bowlers who bowled before him, he was far more effective than them, simply because a bowled better line and length.
In the same over Watson picked up the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan of a ball which was a disguised slower bouncer. He tried to direct the bouncer over the head of keeper but was deceived by the lack of pace and ended up giving an easy catch to Wade. Watson thus gave only one run in the fifth over and picked up both the openers. This slowed India's scoring rate.
At number four Raina came to bat. He did manage to score runs but was not really his fluent self, at times Raina struggled with the short pitched stuff. On the other side Virat was going hammer and tongs on all the Australian bowlers, hitting them at will. Except for Shane Watson, all bowlers conceded lots of runs to the Indian total. Australia failed to pick up regular wickets and this helped Indian batsmen to get their eye in and then score big. In the later part of the innings even Raina scored briskly.
India lost its third wicket in the last over. Dhoni came into bat and hit a helicopter shot of the first ball he faced over midwicket for a six. The next ball was hit over point for a four, this shot fell a few inches away from the rope. Dhoni scored 11 runs of the three balls he faced by picking a single of the fifth ball of the over. India ended up with a score of 188, with man of the match Virat Kohli scoring a lightning 90 of 55 balls.
Australia too started their innings at a blitzkrieg pace. While the first over went for just 5 runs, in the next over bowled by Ashwin, 17 runs were scored. Australians kept scoring fast till Bhumrah was introduced into the attack. Warner tried to pull a ball that Bhumrah bowled way outside the offstump, but he ended up giving Kohli an easy catch.
Steve Smith came into bat and the scoring rate continued to be fast. When Pandya came to bowl, he ended up bowling five wides in an over and that over went for 19 runs. However the game turned when Steve Smith was caught by Kohli off Ravindra Jadeja's bowling and after that carnage followed for Australia.
The next over was bowled by Ashwin, he decided to bowl round the wicket. The first ball he bowled in his second over, he appealed for a LBW. However the umpire didn't give it and told Ashwin that he was not able to see anything since Ashwin blocked his view in his follow through.
Ashwin rectified this in the next ball, the umpire had a better view this time and adjuged Finch LBW. After this Australia's scoring rate came down and at the same time they kept losing wickets at regular intervals.
The Aussie batsmen were constantly under pressure since none of them had time to get their eye in. They had to go for their shots and fell to some high quality spin bowling of Ashwin and Jadeja. The spin duo picked up 2 wickets each.
Ashwin who went for 17 runs in his first over gave just 11 of next 3 overs, picking up 2 wickets at the same time as well. Pandya came in to bowl in his second spell and even he ended up getting a couple of wickets. Every Indian bowler got wickets except Yuvraj who bowled just one over.
Australia were all out for 151 runs, Bhumrah picked up 3 wickets and the last wicket was also picked by him. This gave India a victory with a nice margin of 37 runs.
The major difference between the two teams was the ability to pick up wickets. While Australia were not able to take wickets. The much criticized Indian bowling bowled the entire Aussie side out. This is the first occasion after 2012 that an entire Australian side has been bowled out in a T20 encounter in Australia.
From an Indian cricket fan's point of view, this is a heartwarming performance. One just hopes that Team India continues such performances in the next two T20 matches as well.
After losing the one day series, it would be wonderful to see India win the T20 series against Australia. It would be a great confidence booster for the Indian team keeping in mind that in March, T20 World Cup will be played in India.
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