After a long wait, the second India vs Australia T20I finally got underway at Vidarbha Cricket Association, Nagpur. The start of the match was delayed by three and a half hours hence the game was reduced to eight overs per side. Indian captain Rohit Sharma called correctly at the toss and invited Aaron Finch’s men to bat first.
Australian openers Finch and Cameron Green walked out to the middle to give a blazing start to their team in the rain-curtailed game. Hardik Pandya began the proceedings for India as Australia scored ten runs in the first over. Captain Sharma once again called the allrounder Axar Patel to bowl in the powerplay overs and he repaid his captain’s trust by creating an opportunity straight away.
Cameron Green tried to clobber him over long off but mistimed the shot altogether as the ball went high in the night sky. However, Virat Kohli couldn’t hold on to a difficult catch running backwards from long on. Kohli made amends for the missed chance by running out Green a few balls later. Patel gave another blow to Australia removing the dangerous Glenn Maxwell in the same over. Patel further removed Tim David in the fourth over leaving Australia 31/3 after 3.1 overs.
The comeback man Jasprit Bumrah also found himself amongst the wickets after he removed Aaron Finch with a searing yorker in the fifth over. Just when it looked like India were having an upper hand in the game, Matthew wade once again came to spoil the party as he took on the death bowlers. Wade ripped apart Harshal Patel in the final over and took his team’s total to 90/5 after eight overs.
The Indian chase began in emphatic fashion as openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul made their intentions clear in the first over itself scoring 20 runs. Sharma continued to attack in the second and third over smashing sixes against Pat Cummins and Adam Zampa. Australia finally struck in the third over as Zampa removed Rahul. He further removed Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav bringing Australia back into the game.
However, Sharma didn’t let the pressure mount on the team and kept finding boundaries at regular intervals. Australia made another comeback into the match after removing Hardik Pandya in the second last over. However, Sharma once again brought the match in India’s grasp by scoring a boundary off the last ball of the seventh over. With just nine required from the final over, Dinesh Karthik took matters into his own hands and sent the first ball sailing for a six over deep square leg. Karthik finished things off in style as he pulled a short ball straight to the deep mid-wicket boundary for a four. India chased down the target with 4 balls to spare and won the match by six wickets levelling the series 1-1. Here’s how Twitter reacted to India’s win:
#INDvsAUS today was perfect chance to test dk as finisher but then we have dravid and rohit to decide. We may probably win this but not a good strategy
— randomguy (@rohit40346119) September 23, 2022
Don't blow short ball to Rohit Sharma . #indvsaus
— Crypto_U?? (@crypto__U) September 23, 2022
Good that Indian team didn’t tamper with their batting lineup. #TeamIndia #Rohit #INDvsAUS
— Harry?? (@Srihari_08) September 23, 2022
#INDvsAUS
Dkkkkkkkkkk?????????when dk is there all the things are okkkk .What a match ?
— Surendar B (@surendar_empire) September 23, 2022
Please @BCCI Replace @DineshKarthik in The Place Of Pant in All Formats of the Game Because DK is Way Better Than him in all Aspects Of The Game #INDvsAUS
— Mr_Jee ? (@Mr_Jee27) September 23, 2022
Absolutely one of the best knocks of rohit loved it through our proud to be ur fan ?????? mass batting aslaa #INDvsAUS @ImRo45 #Hitman #RohitSharma?
— shiva (@shiva_being_21) September 23, 2022
Chahal Should Learn Something From Zampa #INDvsAUS
— Aryan (@CrazyHitmanFan) September 23, 2022
Bcci be like : T20 band karo T8 world cup start karo…#INDvsAUST20I #ind #aus #t20 #RohitSharma? #india #INDvsAUS #T20WorldCup
— Mr. Random (@Haan_meri_Jaaan) September 23, 2022
Someone check on Rohit Sharma, his back might be hurting for carrying the entire batting!! ?#INDvsAUS #RohitSharma
— Bhargav A (@DepressdTifosi) September 23, 2022
