Press Trust of India
Adelaide, Jan 26: A strong bowling performance, coupled with a quickfire half century by Virat Kohli (90 n o, 55b, 9×4, 2×6) helped India to a 37-run victory over Australia in the first of the three match T20 series at the Adelaide Oval here Tuesday.
Chasing 189, Australia started strongly before losing wickets at regular intervals to slump to 151 all out in 19.3 overs. Young pacer Jasprit Bumrah (3/23) had a memorable T20 international debut. He was well supported by Ravindra Jadeja (2/21), Ravichandran Ashwin (2/28) and another debutant, Hardik Pandya (2/37). Senior pro Ashish Nehra (1/28) also bowled well on his comeback.
Earlier, Kohli stiched together a 134-run stand with Suresh Raina (41, 34b, 3×4, 1×6) which brought the Indian innings back on track after the visitors had suffered a couple of early blows. India posted 188 for three in their 20 overs and Kohli was rightly adjudged man of the match.
Put in to bat by Australia, India were off to a flying start with Rohit Sharma producing the early fireworks. The Mumbai right-hander took a special liking to Shaun Tait’s bowling, hitting the pacer for a six and a four in the first over and then another couple of boundaries in the third.
Finch was forced to bring on James Faulkner (1/43) and Shane Watson (2/24) early on. The former proved expensive but the latter bowled a brilliant wicket-to-wicket spell. Watson got Rohit with his first delivery of the game with the batsman driving uppishly to mid-on where Faulkner took the catch. He then dismissed the other opener Shikhar Dhawan four balls later with a slower delivery.
That saw Kohli and Raina come together and they handled the Australian bowling with ease and by the time the partnership came to an end in the final over, they had already guided the visitors to a big score.
The Australians had strong start to their chase with openers Aaron Finch (44, 33b, 4×4, 2×6) and David Warner (17) putting on 47 in 5.1 overs. But once Bumrah came into the attack, he stifled the chase.
And from then on, the Indians continued to pick wickets at regular intervals as the Aussies muffed up their plans. The absence of the injured George Bailey and Glenn Maxwell – both excellent player of spin also did not help their cause.