India vs Australia 1st T20I: India cruise to 50th T20I win, beat Australia by nine wickets

India were posed with little challenge throughout the match. (Source: AP)

India defeated Australia by nine wickets in a rain-hit first T20I at Ranchi. After a long break due to rains between innings – with the Australian one being halted at 18.4 overs – India were left to chase a target of 48 runs in 6 overs. Rohit Sharma started the chase with a quickfire 11 before Virat Kohli saw his side through with Shikhar Dhawan providing support. This was India’s 50th win in Twenty 20 Internationals and they are the fourth team since Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka to have reached that figure. It was a damp squib of a match in more ways than one. India were two steps ahead of Australia for the entire duration of the match, as has been the case for the better part of the past one month.

Australia looked to be out of their depth right from the start of the match. Virat Kohli had won the toss and elected to bowl first. David Warner, who was Australia’s skipper in the absence of the injured Steve Smith, smacked consecutive fours in the opening over bowled by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. But if the third and fourth balls went to the boundaries, the fifth one took an inside edge off Warner’s willow and crashed onto the stumps. Australia had lost arguably their most explosive batsman and their captain for the day in the very first over.

Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell then gave the visitors a sense of stability but they kept struggling with a pitch that was pretty much a batsman’s nightmare in the shortest format of the game. There was variable bounce and negotiating that was a headache for the Australians. Ultimately though, it was Yuzvendra Chahal who broke the 47-run partnership between the two and not the pacers. Chahal’s victim was Glenn Maxwell who punched it straight to Bumrah at short midwicket. It was the fourth time in the last as many innings that Chahal had got Maxwell. A bunny has been found.

Australia hardly provided any resistance after that. Aaron Finch was completely played into sweeping Kuldeep Yadav and let one through to his wickets. It was then that the pitch started showing a lack of bounce as the Australians kept getting dismissed while coming down the track with the expectation of a rising ball. Wicketkeeper Tim Paine, who was dropped twice in the 15th over, showed some fight but he too was sent back by Bumrah. Australia capitulated in the death overs and it was only the rain that stopped the carnage. It also stopped the match for a good hour and a half.

In the end, it came down to whether the Indian batting lineup could make 48 runs in 6 overs. It had to be a silly question as this lineup has proven themselves capable of chasing down the biggest of targets. But Nathan Coulter-Nile got Rohit Sharma and it looked like chasing 48 in six is not a walk in the park. A run out appeal on Virat Kohli just a couple of balls later only aggravated those worries.

But then Virat Kohli decided to take the game by the horns. He was helped by the Australian bowlers putting it in areas that were only too easy for him to pick. Kohli made 22 off 14 balls and squared things off with a four over extra cover. India have now taken a 1-0 lead in the three-match series with the second match scheduled to be played in Guwahati