India vs Australia | Aaron Finch told me that I would be bowling in the death, says Stoinis

Australia made a winning start to their T20I series against Virat Kohli & Co. as they beat them by a narrow margin of just four runs at the Gabba in Brisbane on Wednesday. The Indians looked set to make their way to a win as Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant looked in good form. However, Aussie all-rounder Marcus Stoinis had other plans.

After earlier smashing 33 off 19 deliveries in the first innings, Stoinis successfully managed to defend 12 runs in the final over of the match and picked up two wickets as well. Stoinis added that skipper Aaron Finch had spoken to him earlier about having to bowl in the death overs.

"Finchy spoke to me earlier in the day and he said (him bowling in the final overs) could be an option if (Zampa) plays. It was a pretty simple plan – take the pace off the ball, make them hit to the long side and just commit to that one hundred per cent. So it was a clear plan."

"It was good fun, I've gone in a lot of different situations over the past maybe 10 or so Twenty20s, so I've been shown a bit of faith going up a couple of spots – batting at five. We were just focused on building a little partnership and targeting the short boundary," Stoinis told Cricket Australia.

Last night’s victory ended a four-match losing streak for the team in the T20 format and offered some relief to the Australian camp. The next match will be played in Melbourne, where the two will face off on Friday night at the MCG in front of an expected crowd of more than 70,000.

"We've got good memories in the team. We dominated the T20s last year, we were in really good form, we were one or two ranked in the world not long ago. So we're confident. Things haven't gone our way but we know we're a good side," Stoinis added.