Ranchi: India continued to dictate terms against Australia as they defeated the visitors by nine wickets in the rain-curtailed T20I in Ranchi on Saturday to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar got the Indians off to a flying start as he dismissed stand-in skipper David Warner for 8 in the very first over. But Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell brought back with a 47-run partnership before Yuzvendra Chahal once again dismissed the latter for a 17 of 16 balls.
Aaron Finch was the next man to walk back to the pavilion after Kuldeep Yadav bowled one brilliant delivery to rattle the right-hander’s woodwork. Moises Henriques, who was a new addition to the team for the T20I’s fell to the prodigious chinaman bowler as Australia, for yet another time looked to be under the pressure in a match.
Hardik Pandya then ended Travis Head’s stay at the crease for 9 as the Indian bowlers dominated the entire proceedings. With them reeling at 118/8 in 18.4 overs, play was stopped due to rain and India was given a revised total of 48 runs to chase down in 6 overs.
In reply, a returning Shikhar Dhawan opened alongside Rohit Sharma and the right-hander hit a four and a six to help the small chase gather momentum right at the beginning. But he was castled by Nathan Coulter-Nile who remained the only successful bowler from the Australian camp.
But skipper Virat Kohli was in no mood to let the Aussies find their rhythm as he whacked three fours en route to 22 of just 14 deliveries and finished off the match with nine wickets and three balls to spare.
Brief scores-
Australia 118/8 (Aaron Finch 42, Glenn Maxwell 17; Kuldeep Yadav 2/16) lost to India 49/1 (Virat Kohli 22 n.o, Shikhar Dhawan 15; Nathan Coulter-Nile 1/20) by nine wickets (DLS method)