Rohit guides India to series-levelling win
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma didn’t put a foot wrong on Friday. Right from bringing Axar Patel in powerplay to driving his team’s chase, the skipper aced it all. Sharma displayed a range of shots as he creamed Australian attack and carried his bat as India defeated Australia by six wickets at Nagpur’s VCA Jamtha stadium.
After losing Hardik Pandya in the penultimate over from Pat Cummins, Rohit (46 no; 20b, 4x4, 6x4) played a magnificent square-cut that meant India needed just 10 runs from the last over. Once again, Dinesh Karthik displayed his finishing act with a six and a four to level the series. They scored 92 for 4 while chasing down a 91-run target in a truncated match of 8-overs a side.
Rohit showed no hurry in scoring the runs, which provided the stability India desperately needs going into the World Cup. He pulled a six in front of square, another one behind it and delicately chopped Daniel Sams to keep India on track.
India started off with three sixes in the first over to launch their chase in style with the skipper going all out. However, the fall of three big wickets — KL Rahul, Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav in the span of 10 balls by the fifth over — kept the game evenly poised.
Before this match, India had played an 8-over T20 match against New Zealand at Trivandrum in 2017, which they had won by 6 runs, stated Mohandas Menon in his tweet.
Earlier, Axar Patel and Jasprit Bumrah were India’s bright spots during bowling. Rohit used them wisely. While Axar was given a new ball to bowl second and fourth over, Bumrah handled the onus of death overs, where India has been struggling.
It was yet another bad day in office for Yuzvendra Chahal and Harshal Patel, as they both were taken to cleaners. Matthew Wade targeted Harshal. He led from the front scoring 43off 20 balls to take his side to a respectable total.
The brave call from Rohit to introduce Patel in the second over, the last over of the Powerplay, jolted the Aussies early in the match.
SCOREBOARD
Australia: A Finch b J Bumrah 31, C Green (run out) 5, G Maxwell b A Patel 0, T David b A Patel 2, M Wade (not out) 43, S Smith (run out) 8. Extra: (W1) 1. Total: (for 5 wkts, 8 overs) 90. Fall of wickets : 1-14, 2-19, 3-31, 4-46, 5-90. Bowling: Hardik Pandya 1-0-10-0, Axar Patel 2-0-13-2, Yuzvendra Chahal 1-0-12-0, Jasprit Bumrah 2-0-23-1, Harshal Patel 2-0-32-0.
India: KL Rahul b Zampa 10, R Sharma (not out) 46, V Kohli b Zampa 11, SK Yadav lbw Zampa 0, H Pandya c Finch b Cummins 9, D Karthik (not out) 10. Extras:(B1, LB1, W4) 6. Total: (for 4 wkts, 7. 2 overs) 92. Fall of wickets: 1-39, 2-56, 3-56, 4-77. Bowling: Josh Hazlewood 1-0-20-0, Pat Cummins 2-0-23-1, Adam Zampa 2-0-16-3, Daniel Sams 1. 2-0-20-0, Sean Abott 1-0-11-0.
