Twitter Reactions: Vivacious Virat helps India draw level in the T20I series

Luck didn’t quite favour India in the first two T20Is against Australia. In the second match, India had the upper hand and would’ve drawn level, but that wasn’t the case. Nevertheless, the Indians showed nerves of steel and won the match by six wickets with two balls to spare. Aaron Finch’s men would be disappointed that they let India off the hook after getting them on the mat.

Small contributions guide Aussies

Australia won the toss and opted to bat first and the openers- Aaron Finch and D’Arcy Short- blazed away initially to put on 68 for the first wicket in 8.3 overs. Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav came to the party yet again and got rid of Finch for 28 runs. In the very next over, left-armer Krunal Pandya nipped out Short, who scored 33 runs off 29 deliveries with five boundaries.

Pandya accounted for Ben McDermott’s wicket to put the hosts on the backfoot. The Baroda all-rounder finished with impressive figures of 4-0-36-4. From the Aussies’ perspective, no batsman scored big, but the batsmen churned out a collective effort and helped the home team to 164/6. Alex Carey and Marcus Stoinis scored 27 and 25 respectively to propel Australia’s total.

Kohli and Karthik stays calm

The run-chase started in a blistering manner for the Men in Blue as Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan threw the kitchen sink at everything to build a stand of 67 runs from merely 33 deliveries. Mitchell Starc trapped Dhawan, who raced away to a 22-ball 41 with six fours and a couple of sixes, in front to break the ominous-looking stand. Adam Zampa nipped out Rohit in the next over.

With the quick wickets, the match was back in the balance. KL Rahul’s travails continued and he could manage only 14 runs from 20 balls. However, Virat Kohli didn’t get flustered and racked up his 19th T20I half-century in 34 balls. Rishabh Pant flattered to deceive, but Dinesh Karthik lent his captain appropriate support, scored 22 runs and comfortably guided India over the line.

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