Match Review

You can check out the scorecard and Match Tracker here.

Hardik Pandya’s wicket was the turning point of the encounter, given the right-hander’s capability of crossing the boundary with ease. Not only was his firepower missed towards the dead end of the innings, but the absence of a power-hitter from the other end also put all the pressure on Rishabh Pant. Pandya’s dismissal alongside added pressure on Pant restricted India’s firepower towards the end. 

Highs and Lows

Hold the horses, Virat Kohli’s bandwagon fell flat on their face today, in a big-game against Australia. Every time, the side needs him to step up, he goes missing like our assignments on deadline. A two-ball duck was what he could muster before he had to muster up the energy to walk a long walk back to the dressing room. Whilst the crowd were very much on their feet to support the superstar, he would surely feel that he let them down today, with his lacklustre show. Given that he is just a batsman, his display was pathetic and his performance could only be judged on the basis of that. 

Rating Charts

An opening partnership that consists of two of the best T20I batsmen across the world surely should score more than 37 runs in the six-over phase. However, the start was indeed impressive, scoring nine runs off the first six balls before the struggle crept in. Once it did creep in, the scoring became tough for the hosts, and the double-wicket over from Pat Cummins sealed the deal for the visitors on the day. In the last 12 deliveries, nothing dramatic changed, as India could only add nine runs to their total. 

Australia were on pace with their chase en pursuit of Virat Kohli and co’s first innings total of 177. The countdown to the launch was a bit slow, scoring only two runs in the first over before the launch event officially kicked in. Once it kicked in, all hell broke loose as the openers scored the runs in a helter-shelter manner. 13 runs in the third over alongside the wicket of Finch changed the vehicle’s direction. Picking up pace alongside Steve Smith, Warner ensured that the Kangaroos’ got to a score of 53 at 8.83. 

While Kohli and co were hoping for recovering from the early damage, they were dealt with more damage when the Mumbaikar Shreyas Iyer walked a long walk back to the dressing room. Once Iyer was done and dusted, the responsibility had to be shouldered by Rohit and Rishabh Pant. Even that partnership did not last long as Rohit left all the responsibility to the lower-order to stitch a good total for the team. From 37 after the powerplay overs, they could only muster up the courage to add 63 runs, ending up at 100 for the loss of five wickets, which took the blood out of their batting order. 

It was in the middle-over period where Australia gave up on the chase as if they were running a marathon in the harshest of conditions. The Kangaroos’ pace was pretty much intact, despite the field spread to the longest of boundaries. In just the first six balls after the boom-phase for the batsmen, the duo of David Warner and Steve Smith put on a show, scoring 13. However, just as I type this, Warner is gone! On top of that, they lost Maxwell too later on in the innings after which the scoring-rate saw a death. At 7 runs an over, they could only score 71 in the phase. 

The same set of bowlers - the same fielders and the same everything yet the result was starkly different, with Australia struggling to contain the Indian batsman. Rishabh Pant alongside Ravindra Jadeja was enough to take charge for the hosts, who piled up 78 runs in the last 30 deliveries that they faced to leave them on a pedestal, as the visitors struggled big time to pick a single wicket. Pant, ended up, scoring 77 runs off just 43 balls, scoring four boundaries and six sixes. 

While the Aussie pacers showed that they were very poor towards the end overs, Indian bowlers did not shy away from shaming themselves. After restricting the middle-order to 124/3, they allowed them to make a comeback in the encounter, conceding 58 runs, which helped Australia to a victory. 

The game had all segments worthy of a contest between the bat and ball. Till the end over, the fixture had boundaries, sixes and wickets all over it. Combined with the fact that it went till the very last breath of the encounter, it made for a really good contest.