India Scrapes Home in Thrilling Opener Against Second-String Australia

In terms of white-ball cricket, India will now be more focused on T20 matches. But Australia demonstrated in the opening Twenty20 International at the ACA-VDCA Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Thursday that their bowling, particularly in the pace department, is one area of concern.

To the delight of the Indian batsmen, the second-string Australian bowling attack, however, found the going harder and sprayed the ball everywhere.

India eventually secured a two-wicket victory in a last-ball finish, taking a 1-0 lead in the series, thanks to captain Suryakumar Yadav (80 off 42 balls), who also made history with his game-changing 112-run third-wicket partnership with Ishan Kishan (58 off 39 balls) and Rinku Singh (22 not out).

India was also helped by Australia's slow overrate, which forced them to use one fewer fielder in the final phases of the game outside the 30-yard line.

Yes, the pitch was a beast of a track, and it appeared to get easier to bat later on. However, even with Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, and Glenn Maxwell absent from Australia's batting lineup, the bowlers for India still allowed the visitors to amass a massive score of 208/3 after they were put in.

Josh Inglis of Australia during his Thursday 50-ball 110.

Josh Inglis of Australia during his Thursday 50-ball 110.

PTI image

Not that the Australians were not intense, but it was clear from their body language that they were still in high spirits after winning the ODI World Cup last Sunday, as it hasn't even been a week. Josh Inglis, who scored 110 runs off 50 balls, is a legend for his incredible innings, but Steve Smith, who was opening for the first time in international cricket, lacked fluency.

However, Smith's half-century was also indicative of how good India's bowling was, and it took a run-out to dismiss him following some miscommunication with Inglis.

It's not as though the quicks bowled much worse than India's spinners. Leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi had an insignificant time out in the middle of the game, but left-armer Axar Patel was not too costly, scoring 32 off his four overs in his comeback match.

With his first over, Bishnoi showed good form by dismissing Matthew Short. But after a relatively quiet 50-over World Cup with the bat, Inglis unleashed his arsenal of strokes in his final couple of overs, cartwheeling him all over the field.

Surprisingly, Bishnoi didn't seem to change up his speed much, which would have been helpful on that particular course where the slower delivery did make strokeplay a little challenging.

In his final two overs, Arshdeep Singh made a lot of mistakes that hurt India's quicks. Smith and Inglis both gave Prasidh Krishna a hard time.

Mukesh Kumar, on the other hand, was much more reasonable. Because the Bengal pacer continuously landed the yorker and only let up five runs off the 20th over, Australia was unable to reach 220. Given the outcome, that over was crucial.

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