India v Australia, 1st T20I, Ranchi – 5 Game Changing Moments

After the action-packed ODI series, the focus now shifts to the most entertaining format of the game, i.e., the T20 matches. Before the start of the series, Australia would have aimed to take at least one trophy back home while India would have strived to continue their domination over their opposition by sweeping the T20 series as well.

Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bowl first. Aaron Finch translated his form in the ODI into the T20s as he gave a blistering start to the Aussies. Much like the theme of the Australian tour of India, the visitors gave it away after receiving a good start as they lost wickets at regular intervals.

Due to the time lost due to rain, India had to chase down a tricky total of 48 runs in six overs by applying DLS method. Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan completed the formalities and won the match by 9 wickets with three balls to spare. Kuldeep Yadav received the man of the match award for his spell.

1. Finch providing a blistering start

Much like the theme of the series, Aaron Finch smashed 42 runs off just 30 balls at a strike rate of 140, with 4 fours and a maximum. He stitched a vital partnership with Glenn Maxwell to take Australia to a firm position at 55 within the powerplays. His dismissal, in the end, proved to be the decisive wicket for the Australians.

2. Ball keeping low/ Kuldeep Yadav’s spell

Australians were looking set for posting a score of 160+ with the kind of start they received. However, it all changed as soon as Kuldeep Yadav was introduced into the attack. He set up the wicket of Finch who was going great guns at that point in time. He then took the wicket of Moises Henriques just when he was looking to counter-attack.

He ended up with a magical figure of 2/16 in his four overs at an economy of 4 runs per over. That said, just when the ball started to lose it hardness, the pitch started offering low bounce and clearly the likes of Head and Henriques paid the price by losing their wickets to low bounce.

3. Australia collapse/ getting bowled

Australians just down seem to learn from their mistakes as they continue to lose wickets in heaps after being provided with decent starts by the top order. After Maxwell, who struggled his way to 17, the only batsman to have reached double-digit was Tim Paine.

Rest of the players could not quite keep up with the pace of the game and kept giving their wickets to the opposition. From 76-2 in the 10th over, they added only 32 runs in the next 9 overs and lost six wickets. Interestingly, out of the 8 Australian dismissals, 6 of them were clean bowled.

4. Rain Interruption

Rain took away a large chunk of the game as the Australian innings was curtailed to only 18.4 overs. India then had to chase down a slightly tricky target of 48 runs in just 6 over at a required run rate of 8 runs per over. With the kind of batting line up India has, it was never going to be a challenge.

Also, with the rain-shortened over reduction, Australia was bereft with the chance of having a go at the Indians with the old ball, where the visitors were clearly struggling with low bounce and spin.

5. The three usual suspects, seal the deal

Rohit Sharma made the target even easier by smashing the first ball of the over from Beherendorff and Coulter-Nile to the boundary. Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli completed the formalities with their unbeaten cameos to help take India a 1-0 victory in the 3-match T20I series.