Visakhapatnam: A profligate Umesh Yadav undid all the good work done by Jasprit Bumrah as Australia edged out India by three wickets in a last-ball thriller in the first T20I here, Sunday.
With 14 required off the last over, Umesh was hit for a boundary each by Jhye Richardson and Pat Cummins, who had identical scores of 7 not out as they reached the target of 127 off the last delivery of the match.
This was after Japrit Bumrah bowled an incredible 19th over to bring India back in the match just when it was looking that Australia would canter home. He got Peter Handscomb with a short ball and then yorked Nathan Coulter-Nile after having dismissed Aaron Finch in his first spell.
However it was Australia’s tail-enders, who held the nerve getting the couple required couple of runs off the final delivery of the innings.
But till the 15th over, Australia were in a cruise control mode as Glenn Maxwell (56) and D’Arcy Short (37) added 84 runs for the third wicket to almost seal the match. However, things changed after Maxwell got out.
Earlier put into bat, opener KL Rahul’s (50) half century on comeback but an inexplicable batting collapse found India restricted to a paltry 126/7. Back in the senior team after two-month wilderness due to his trash talk on a TV show, Rahul showed why he is rated highly but some indiscreet shot selection from his teammates meant that only 46 runs were scored in the back 10.
From a comfortable 80/2 in 9.5 overs, India lost four wickets for 20 runs by the 15th over to be reduced to 100/6. MS Dhoni, played one of his signature dogged innings as he stemmed the rot but the total was definitely sub-par in the end. The best partnership was 55 for the second wicket between Rahul and skipper Virat Kohli.
Brief scores: India 126/7 (KL Rahul 50, MS Dhoni 29 n o; Nathan Coulter-Nile 3/26) lost to Australia 127/7 (Glenn Maxwell 56, D’Arcy Short 37; Jasprit Bumrah 3/16) by 3 wickets.
Indian team Sunday wore black armbands as a mark of respect
in the memory of the CRPF personnel, who were martyred
in a dastardly terror attack in Pulwama last week.