The Indian skipper, Virat Kohli found it tough to summarise India’s performance as they lost the T20I series against Australia 2-0 following a seven-wicket defeat at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday. The flamboyant Australian cricketer, Glenn Maxwell was at the forefront of Australia’s run-chase, scoring a scintillating knock of 113* off 55 balls, his third T20I century, as the hosts won their maiden T20I bilateral series on Indian soil.
During the post-match presentation, Kohli said, “Pretty short series to summarise the performances. Australia outplayed us in all departments and deserved to win. 190 is a good total on most grounds but if there is so much dew as there was tonight and when you have an innings like what Glenn Maxwell played, nothing much you can do.”
Chasing a huge target of 191, which was just about under-par on a batting surface like Bangalore, especially with India missing the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kuldeep Yadav, Kohli, who scored an unbeaten 72*, did not feel his bowlers were to blame.
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Talking about it further, Virat said, “We would have liked to get across the line in at least this game, but I can’t be too hard on the bowlers due to the amount of dew. We wanted to give everyone some game time, we’ve seen how they react under pressure, there is a series coming up and we’ll try more things. It’s up to them to deliver the goods. The good thing was that the Bangalore wicket was back to normal and you could trust the lengths. I enjoyed myself, but it didn’t really matter as we lost the game.”
Australia sealed their first Twenty20I bilateral series win on the Indian soil and a lot of credit goes to Maxwell. Talking about the same, the Aussie skipper, Aaron Finch said that any kind of series win against India in India is truly special.
While Finch lauded Maxwell, he felt that Adam Zampa’s bowling performance was the difference between the two sides. Zampa conceded just 23 runs in his four overs while the likes of Pat Cummins, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jhye Richardson and part-timer D’Arcy Short went for plenty.
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Finch further elaborated, “Glenn Maxwell was truly sensational tonight but I thought Adam Zampa was the difference between the two sides. To go for just 23 runs on that kind of a wicket was really remarkable. We’ve been on a journey for the last 10-11 months building up to the World Cup and there has been some pain during the journey. We’ve done well to take the blows but also have made some progress, hoping to peak at the right time for the World Cup.”
The two-match T20I series against India will be followed by five-match ODI series and kicks off on March 2 in Hyderabad.
