T20 games will now be in greater focus for India when it comes to white-ball cricket. But their bowling, especially the pace department, is one area of concern, something Australia showed in the first T20I at the ACA-VDCA Stadium in Visakhapatnam
on Thursday.
Nevertheless, the second-string Australian bowling attack found the conditions to be tougher and sprayed the ball all around, much to the liking of the Indian batsmen.
Thanks to captain Suryakumar Yadav (80 off 42 balls) and his game-changing 112-run third-wicket stand with Ishan Kishan (58 off 39 balls), and Rinku Singh (22 not out) later, India eventually clinched a two-wicket win in a last-ball finish, to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
What also aided India was Australia’s slow over rate, which meant they had to keep one fielder less outside the 30-yard circle in the closing stages.
Agreed, the pitch was a belter of a track and seemed to become even easier for batting later on. But against an Australian batting line-up without ODI World Cup final centurion Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh and Glenn Maxwell, India’s bowlers still allowed the visitors to pile up a big total of 208/3 after putting them in.
Australia’s Josh Inglis during his 50-ball 110 on Thursday. PTI photo
Not to say that the Australians lacked in intensity, but one could gauge from their body language that they are still in celebratory mode as not even a week has passed since they won the ODI World Cup last Sunday. Centurion Josh Inglis (110 off 50 balls) certainly deserves huge credit for the superb innings he played, but Steve Smith, opening in international cricket for the first time, didn’t look too fluent.
But such was India’s bowling that Smith too brought up a half-century and it needed a run out to send him back, after a bit of miscommunication with Inglis.
It’s not that India’s spinners bowled far better than the quicks. Left-armer Axar Patel wasn’t too expensive, going for 32 off his four overs in his comeback game, but leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi had a forgettable time out in the middle.
Bishnoi began well, castling Matthew Short in his very first over. But off his last couple of overs, he was carted all around the park by Inglis, who unleashed his array of strokes after a rather quiet 50-over World Cup with the bat.
Surprisingly, Bishnoi wasn’t really seen to vary his pace, which could have come in handy on that track, where the slower delivery did make strokeplay a tad difficult.
To talk of India’s quicks, Arshdeep Singh messed it up in his last two overs. Prasidh Krishna got a hammering from Inglis as well as Smith.
In comparison, Mukesh Kumar was far more sensible. The Bengal pacer conceded only five off the 20th over, landing the yorker consistently, and that was crucial to Australia not getting 220. That over was vital in the context of the result.
