On Halloween Day, it was India who suffered a bout of the spooks as they succumbed for just 125 all out inside 19 overs at the MCG, a total which Australia overhauled with four wickets and 40 balls remaining for a 1-0 lead in the series.
The sell-out crowd at the iconic Melbourne venue was distinctly pro-India but did not get their money’s worth from Suryakumar Yadav’s team, barring a one-man show from Abhishek Sharma whose 68 off 37 balls was 54 percent of the visitors’ total. Josh Hazlewood was Player of the Match for a terrific spell of 3/13 which set up Australia for victory, even though the home team lost needless wickets in getting to 126.
Vital to this result was Australia keeping Abhishek to just 37 of the 111 deliveries bowled while he was at the crease. He sped to a fifty in 23 balls and was clearly a class above all of his team-mates, none of whom, barring Harshit Rana with 35, made it to double figures.
Hazlewood signed off his white-ball commitments before the Ashes with a superb new-ball spell that accounted for Shubman Gill, Suryakumar and Tilak Varma after Mitchell Marsh won another toss and, no surprises, chose to bowl under grey skies.
Gill (5), Sanju Samson (2), SKY (1), Varma (0) and Axar Patel were all part of a dramatic collapse to 49/5 even as Abhishek continued to blaze away. Using his crease to make room for himself, Abhishek took on Australia’s pacers and scored 28 of the 40 runs India made during the Powerplay.
He found an ally in Rana, who ably swung his bat in a handy innings, but once the latter was dismissed by Xavier Bartlett the innings caved in again. Two runs at the back end did not help India’s cause.
You don’t win many T20 games with 125 to defend, and India conceded 56 in the first six overs with Jasprit Bumrah off his radar. Travis Head made 28 off 15 balls before he was well held inside the boundary by a juggling Varma, off Varun Chakravarthy, who then added Tim David (1) in an economical spell.
Marsh smacked 46 off 26 to hasten the result, even as Australia ended in sloppy manner with two wickets to Bumrah in the 13th over.
