Shikhar knock not enough, India lose Dhawan joins elite 600 runs in a year club in Twenty20
BRISBANE T20 Visitors start with loss as hosts, led by Stoinis’ show, claim first win in five matches BRISBANE:
Australia edged India by four runs for a nerve-wracking win in their opening Twenty20 Wednesday despite a gallant 76 from Shikhar Dhawan, giving them a huge confidence boost after a run of poor results.
With a rain-marred match in Brisbane reduced to 17 overs, the visitors were set 174 to win under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern system after the hosts made 158-4, Glenn Maxwell top-scoring with 46.
India needed 13 off the last over from Marcus Stoinis, but in a desperate bid to get the runs two wickets fell and they missed the target.
It eased the pressure on Australia who have been struggling to find their feet after the balltampering scandal in South Africa in March.
They have endured a dire run of results since and had lost fours T20s before this one.
“The boys played really well especially through the middle overs with the bat. They showed a lot of courage,” said skipper Aaron Finch.
“The bowling was outstanding under a lot of pressure. I was confident. Stoinis was the one I pencilled in to do that job at the end. He had clear plans and executed his plans really well.”
‘SEE-SAW BATTLE’
Indian captain Virat Kohli called it an “exciting see-saw battle”.
“A lot of Indians came to support us. It was a great atmosphere to play in,” he said.
“We bowled well and then they came back into the game with Stoinis and Maxy (Maxwell) batting well. And a really good knock from Shikhar (for us). He’s a very strong player at the top of the order.”
Dhawan opened the innings in the run chase and immediately began plundering the Australian attack, smashing two boundaries off Jason Behrendorff’s opening over of the match.
Behrendorff got the scalp of dangerman Rohit Sharma for seven, but there was no stopping Dhawan who hit 16 off one over to bring up his ninth T20 50 off just 28 balls.
Lokesh Rahul made 13 before he was cleverly stumped by Alex Carey, bringing Kohli to the crease to huge roars from the big Indian contingent.
But he didn’t last long, gone for four with Chris Lynn taking a catch at third man off Adam Zampa.
And Dhawan wasn’t far behind, caught on the boundary ropes attempting an upper cut off Billy Stanlake’s bowling. QUICKFIRE
It left Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik needing to score 78 runs off 36 balls. They whittled it down to set up a nail-biting finish before succumbing to the pressure.
Earlier, Maxwell smacked
Bowling: Bhuvneshwar 3-0-15-0, Bumrah 3-0-21-1, Khaleel 3-0-42-1, Kuldeep 4-0-24-2,
Krunal 4-0-55-0
four sixes in an explosive display before the heavens opened and the teams were called off by the umpires after 16.1 overs.
After an hour-long delay, they came back out to face five balls and Maxwell was out to the first of Karthik c Behrendorff b Stoinis 30(13) Krunal c Maxwell b Stoinis 2 (4) Bhuvneshwar not out 1 (1) Kuldeep not out 4 (1) Extras (lb 3, nb 3, w 6) 12 Total (7 wickets; 17 overs) 169 FoW: 1-35, 2-81, 3-94, 4-105, 5-156, 6-163, 7-163
Bowling: Behrendorff 4-0-43-1, Stanlake 3-0-27-1, Tye 3-0-47-1, Zampa 4-0-22-2, Stoinis 3-0-27-2
them, with Australia making 158-4.
Experienced bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar had set the early tone, restricting Finch and D’Arcy Short to just 12 runs off the opening three overs after Kohli put them into bat.
Short fell to Khaleel Ahmed for seven, bringing Lynn to the crease and he set the Gabba on fire by crunching three huge sixes in one loose over from Ahmed.
KULDEEP STRIKES
Finch went for 27 soon after when fooled by a wrong’un from Kuldeep Yadav and Lynn also fell to the spinner after a quick-fire 37 off 20 balls.
Maxwell played himself in then went into Lynn mode, whacking three successive sixes to take 23 off a Krunal Pandya over.
Ably partnered by Stoinis — who clubbed an unbeaten 33 — they put on 78 before the weather halted their progress.
next ICC World T20 may be two years away, but batsmen around the globe have already upped the ante in the shortest format, with as many as six players crossing the 500run mark in T20Is this year, which is a record for the shortest format.
Australia captain Aaron Finch on Wednesday became the sixth to score 500 or more runs in a year in T20 this year.
But there was a bigger feat in store for Shikhar Dhawan, who joined Virat Kohli in the 600-run club. Kohli had scored 641 runs in 15 T20Is in 2016. Dhawan completed his 600 runs on Wednesday during his 76 off 42 balls. This year is the first in T20I history where a flurry of batsmen have scored 500 or more runs.
Pakistan’s Fakhar Zaman (576 runs), Babar Azam (563) and New Zealand’s Colin Munro (500) are the other three batsmen to have scored 500 or more runs so far in 2018.
Australia’s Glenn Maxwell (474) and D’Arcy Short (468) are likely to complete their 500 T20I runs over next few days.
The world No 2 India team now has two batsmen in top three in terms of runs scored — Fakhar Zaman Rohit Sharma Babar Azam Aaron Finch Colin Munro Evin Lewis Babar Azam AB de Villiers
Virat Kohli Mohd Shahzad Rohit Sharma
Mohd Shahzad Faf du Plessis Sean Williams 17 17 12 15 12 9 10 7 15 15 18 11 6 10 Dhawan with 648 runs in 16 matches at 40.50 with six fifties while Rohit Sharma is at the third spot with 567 runs in 17 matches at 37.80 with two centuries and three fifties.
MUMBAI:The
KOHLI TOPS THE CHART
Kohli was averaging more than 50 across all three formats not long ago, but lack of T20s for him in comparison to his Indian teammates has led to the India skipper garnering a mere 150 runs in eight matches so far in T20 in 2018.
The 30-year-old was not part of the winning India side in a triangular Nidahas Trophy (five matches) earlier this year in Sri Lanka, and he also missed the T20 leg (three matches) of the recent West Indies tour of India. In total, Kohli missed nine matches, including the final T20I against South Africa at Cape Town due to a stiff back.
However, the Indian batsman has featured among the top three run-getters thrice this decade, including his feat in 2016. In 2014, he was the thirdhighest run-scorer with 385 runs in seven matches at 96.25 and five half-centuries, while in 2012 Kohli finished second behind New Zealand’s Martin Guptill with 471 runs in 14 matches at 39.25.
PLAYER
Shikhar Dhawan PLAYER AVG SR
40.5 37.8 145.29 148.83 147.65 126.51