The Australian skipper Aaron Finch won the toss and elected to field against India in the first T20 International match at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy stadium in Visakhapatnam. During the toss, the Indian skipper, Virat Kohli said that KL Rahul has made a come back into the playing XI while Shikhar Dhawan has been rested. The fiery pacer Umesh Yadav replaced Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Vijay Shankar made way for debutant Mayank Markande. Jasprit Bumrah also made a comeback.
Before the start of the game, Both the Indian cricket team and the visitors Australia paid tribute to the martyrs of the cowardly terrorist attack in Pulwama attack by maintaining two minutes of silence at the start of the game. Virat Kohli and his men were also seen wearing a black band on their arm in their honor.
WATCH – Mayank Markande Getting His Maiden T20I Cap
The Indian batsmen failed to deliver as they only managed to reach the total of 126/7 in their quota of 20 overs. Only Rahul manage to score 50 as most of the batsmen failed to score. For Australia, Nathan Coulter-Nile was the pick of the bowlers as he conceded 26 runs in his quota of four overs and picked three crucial Indian wickets of Rahul, Dinesh Karthik, and Krunal Pandya.
Things were going hunky dory for Australia till the 14th over as Glenn Maxwell and D’Arcy Short made 84 runs for the third wicket. But they were reeling at 111/5 after the 18 overs with most of the batsmen back in the dug-out requiring 16 runs in last two overs. Then came Jasprit Bumrah who wreaked havoc for the visitors in the penultimate over.
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On the penultimate ball of the 19th over, Australia lost their way as Bumrah bowled a short ball on the middle and Pete Handscom shuffled across to try and help it along, but the pace of the ball was too much for him and top edge went high into the night sky but a calm MS Dhoni was under it and took it with easy catch. On the very next delivery, Jasprit knocked over Coulter-Nile with a searing yorker and brought back India in the game.
Here is the video of the dismissals:
https://twitter.com/videos_shots/status/1099713538686373888
Australia needed 14 runs in the final over but Umesh Yadav failed to restrict as Australia score 14 runs in the final over.
