Indians will play three T20I in Australia after their ODI series from December 4. Indian cricket team has a decent T20 record Down Under including a whitewash during the 2016 tour. Here we have listed three interesting T20I matches between India and Australia on Australian soil.
An Indian batting collapse
India played their first T20 international match against Australia in Australia on February 1, 2008. Indian cricket team, led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni was expected to have an impact in their only T20I match of the tour. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a disaster for the men in blue, and batting first, they were bundled up for just 74 runs in 17.3 overs. Irfan Pathan was the highest run-scorer for them in the game with a 30-ball 26 runs.
The rest of the batters failed to reach double-digit. Nathan Bracken led the bowling attack for Australia and took three wickets followed by 2/5 in two overs of Adam Voges. It was a funny sight when at the fall of the 9th wicket, India’s No 11 Ishant Sharma was welcomed by all the 11 Australians in close-in positions. The chase saw a 22-ball 25 from Adam Gilchrist and an unbeaten 37 off 36 balls from Michael Clarke to register a record win for Australia.
Bumrah announcing himself
India’s 2016 T20I series in Australia was pathbreaking in many ways. In their first match of the series, they gave a platform to two relatively unknown Indian IPL finds in Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. Both the newcomers had significant contributions in the game and helped India win handsomely. Batting first, India posted 188/3. Virat Kohli’s astronomical 2016 form continued as he scored 55-ball 90. Australia’s chase had a good start but the first ball of the 6th over saw Bumrah scalping David Warner as his first T20 international wicket and derailing the chase.
Source: Twitter (BCCI)
Pandya started his international career with three consecutive wides and went for 19 runs in his first over. However, he made a strong comeback to finish with 2/37. Indian spinning duo Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja picked up two wickets each. Bumrah returned to take two more wickets and finished with 3/23 as the Australians were bowled out for just 151.
Whitewash
In the same series, India went on to register their first-ever whitewash in any format. In the third T20I at Sydney Cricket Ground, Australia batted first, and based on Shane Watson’s batting they finished on 197/5. Watson scored 124 of those runs in 71 deliveries with 10 fours and six huge sixes. None of the Indian bowlers could stop the carnage. Indian chase was mostly dependant on Rohit Sharma (52) and Virat Kohli (50). But both were dismissed within the 15th over with India requiring 51 runs more to win the match.
Source: cricket.com.au
Experienced Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh were in the middle. While Raina was in subline form, Singh struggled to score five runs in the first nine balls. With 17 runs required in the last over, Yuvraj Singh sent the first two balls for a boundary and a six as Raina duly hit a boundary in the last ball of the final over to take India to a memorable victory.