With the late batting effort from Jadeja, followed by a collective bowling show from Natarajan and Chahal, India defeated Australia by 11 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the three matches T20I series. It was India's 8th consecutive win in T20 international. The second match of the series will be played in Sydney on Sunday.
Toss: Australia opted to field first
Venue: Manuka Oval, Canberra
Team News: Natarajan makes his debut & Samson comes in (India)
Mathew Wade replaces Alex Carey, Mitchell Swepson comes in (Australia)
Detailed Report
First innings: India off to a slow start and Starc struck in the 3rd over to remove Dhawan after scoring just 1. KL Rahul played some good shots to finish powerplay on 42/1. In his first over, Swepson got the big man, Kohli in the dugout with caught & bowled. Samson joined KL Rahul and hit a fine six to Swepson to showcase his intent. The Kerala batsman couldn’t convert his start and Henriques got him after 15-balls 23. Manish Pandey looked dull from the start and Zampa ended his innings in the 13th over.
The pressure offered KL Rahul to play a big shot and he lost his wicket after a fine 51 off 40 balls. The series of wickets in middle-overs hurt India’s innings. From 12-14 overs, India scored just 6 runs and lost three wickets. Adam Zampa conceded only 20 in his spell with one wicket. Once again, Pandya and Jadeja were in middle but they didn’t repeat the last game’s show. Henriques grabbed Pandya to leave India six-down on 114. Henriques finished the spell with three wickets for 22. in the 19th over, Jadeja suffered an injury but he smashed Hazlewood 23 runs to get India 150. Jadeja fired with his best T20I score, 44 of just 23 balls to end the innings on 161. In the last 5 overs, India got 64 runs which created a big difference in the game.
Note: During the mid-inning, the match referee introduced Yuzvendra Chahal as the concussion substitute in place of injured Jadeja.
2nd innings: Australia off to a blistering start with the new pair Aaron Finch and D'arcy Short. Both ended the powerplay on 53 without any blow. Substitute Chahal provided the breakthrough for India as he got Finch after scoring 35. Chahal struck in his next over and this time, he got the big fish. Smith got out on 12 to give India a chance. Kohli introduced Natarajan and he didn’t disappoint the captain. He got Glenn Maxwell LBW without creating any damage. With three wickets on 18 balls, India found itself on the driver’s seat.
Short, on the other hand, was constructing Australia’s innings and formed a partnership with Moises Henriques. Natarajan delivered another breakthrough to pick Short after a steady 34. In the last 5 overs, Australia required 51 runs with 6 wickets in hand. Sundar also bowled an economical spell during this phase, conceding just 16 runs from the 4-overs. Chahal struck on his final ball of the spell by picking Wade. He ended his bowling figure with 3 wickets. Natarajan also bowled very well and picked a 3-wickets haul in his debut match. Due to the tight bowling in death and the pressure of the require-rate, Australia fell short of 11 runs.
Star-performer of the match
Yuzvendra Chahal is our star performer of the match for his outstanding bowling show in this match. He was introduced as the concussion of Jadeja and struck in the first over to remove dangerous Finch. He also scalped Steve Smith in 2nd over. At the crucial phase of the game, Chahal picked Wade to complete the 3-wickets haul.
5 players who made an impact in this game:
KL Rahul 51 (40)
Moises Henriques 3-0-22-3 & 30 (19)
R Jadeja 44 (23)
Yuzvendra Chahal 4-0-25-3
Natarajan 4-0-30-3
