Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh): Following his side’s two-wicket loss to India, Australian skipper Matthew Wade said that the Men in Blue came hard at them and they failed to nail their yorkers.
Half-centuries by Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan helped India secure a two-wicket win over Australia in the first T20I of a five-match series at Visakhapatnam on Thursday.
“It was a good match in the end. Inglis got us a score we thought we could defend but the Indians came hard at us. These young Indians play a lot of IPL and T20 cricket. Thought we bowled pretty well, just could not nail our yorkers, easier said than done especially on a small ground like this. A lot of positives to take out from this game. Inglis was class. We thought we did fairly well, Ellis bowled a big over for us to take it into the final over, it went down to the last ball so it shows how close it was,” Wade said in the post-match presentation.
India is 1-0 up in the series and have pulled off their highest T20I run chase.
Coming to the match, India opted to bowl first. Though they got Matthew Short (13) early, the partnership of 130 runs between Josh Inglis (110 in 50 balls, with 11 fours and four sixes) and Steve Smith (52 off 41 balls, with eight fours) put Men in Blue on backfoot.
Rest, the finishing by Tim David (19*) took Australia to 208/3 in 20 overs.
Prasidh Krishna (1/50) and Ravi Bishnoi (1/54) took a wicket each for India.
In the chase of 209, India lost Ruturaj Gaikwad (0) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (21) early, leaving Men in Blue at 22/2. However, a 112-run stand between Ishan Kishan (58 in 39 balls, with two fours and five sixes) and skipper Suryakumar Yadav (80 in 42 balls, with nine fours and four sixes) brought back India into the game. Finishing touches by Rinku Singh (22* in 14 balls, with four boundaries) helped India reach the target with two wickets in hand, despite some tense run-outs in the final over.
Tanveer Sangha (2/47) was the best bowler for Aussies. Matthew Short, Sean Abbott and Jason Behrendorff took a wicket each.
