Ranchi : India on Saturday defeated Australia by nine-wickets in rain-hit first T20 match of the three-match series at Ranchi’s JSCA (Jharkhand State Cricket Association) Stadium Complex.
India won the toss and elected to field first against Australia. The omen was not good for the visitors as captain Davide Warner was dismissed by Bhuvneshwar in his first over with eight runs on the board, which the captain scored.
Glenn Maxwell on his individual score of 17 became victim of Bumrah in the seventh over when the score was 55.
Aaron Finch (42) was the third batsman to go when Kuldeep Yadav clean bowled him in the 10th over.
Moises Henriques (8) went to pavilion in the 13th over after a delivery of Kuldeep Yadav hit stumps. Australia’s score was 87-4.
In the next over, Travis Head (9) was clean bowled by Hardik Pandya when the total score was 89 runs.
Bumrah got the wicket of Tim Paine (17) and Nathan Coulter-Nile (1) in quick succession. He picked both the wickets in the 18th over and ironically both the wickets were clean bowled.
Daniel Christian was run out by Indian captain Virat Kohli”>Virat Kohli on the first delivery of the 19th over. Then rain stopped the match.
Australia’s total score was 118 for the loss of 8 wickets in 18.4 overs.
By picking up the two wickets, Bumrah broke a record by going past Ashish Nehra to become the second highest wicket-taker for India in T20I’s. Bumrah now has 36 wickets from 26 matches, while Nehra has 34 to his name.
Due to rain, India’s target was set at 48 runs in six overs.
India scored the required 49 runs in 5.3 overs for the loss of one wicket. Opener Rohit Sharma was clean bowled by b Coulter-Nile in the second over with 11 runs on the score board.
Shikhar Dhawan (15) and Virat Kohli”>Virat Kohli (22) remained unbeaten.
Kuldeep Yadav was declared Man of the Match for his excellent and economical bowling. He gave away only 16 runs in four overs and took two wickets. (ANI)