It was a Fantastico outing for Team India as they defeated Australia convincingly in the first T20 international that was played today at the Adelaide Oval to lead the three match series 1-0.
Australia won the toss and inserted India on to bat first. They had chased huge totals in the recently concluded ODI series and this decision must surely have been prompted by that fact.
Australia gave debut to the hard hitting all-rounder Travis Head while India gave debut to the all-rounder Hardik Pandya. Old guns Shane Watson and Shaun Tait returned for Australia while Yuvraj Singh and Ashish Nehra made a comeback for the Indians.
India started well as Rohit found the boundary quite frequently among his mis-hits. India reached 31-0 in 3 overs as Shaun Tait struggled for his line and length. Watson was introduced in the 5th over and he immediately made an impact as he snaffled both Rohit and Dhawan as India slipped to 41-2.
India moved to 79-2 with Kohli continuing from where he had left in the ODI series. Rains on the other was struggling to find any sort of rhythm. Raina reached 1000 T20 international runs while Kohli brought up his 10th T20I half century. Kohli was finding the gaps with ease and India were in a commanding position. Tait finished his 4 overs with figures of none for 45. Raina fell in the last over going for a cute lap and MS Dhoni arrived to smack a 6 and 4 of his first two balls. India finished with 188-3 with Virat Kohli smashing an unbeaten 90.
The Australian innings got off to a rapid start as both Finch and Warner started playing their shots from the word go. The youngster Bumrah stated off well and had Warner mis-timing a pull shot to mid-on. Hardik Pandya went for 19 runs in good first over as he struggled with his control giving away 5 wides. Australia were going nicely but Jadeja got one to stop on Smith and Australia were 89-2. In the next over Ashwin got Finch leg before wicket and Australia had suddenly lost both the set batsmen.
Lynn and Head were out there with the Indian spinners tightening the noose and Head too departed shuffling too far across to Jadeja. From there on it was a mere formality for India even though Shane Watson and Lynn did strike a few hefty blows.
Pandya got two lucky wickets in the end while the impressive Bumrah finished with three. Australia were bowled out for 151 handing India a Fantastico win by 37 runs. India won the game but there is plenty of scope for improvement for them. I hope that the team will go from strength to strength and clinch this series so that they can carry the confidence in the WT20 World Cup.
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