Team India faced a terrible defeat against Australia in the first T20I of the three-match series in Mohali on Tuesday. Despite a great show with the bat by Hardik Pandya, who smashed 71* off 30 balls, Team India failed to defend a target of 209. Cameron Green (61) and Matthew Wade (45*) rose to the occasion and provided Australia with a four-wicket win. The pacer duo of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Harshal Patel leaked a total of 101 runs in their combined eight overs.
Bhuvneshwar’s bowling in the death overs especially has been a matter of concern for the past few matches now as he conceded a total of 16 runs in the 19th over on Tuesday. However, former Australia cricketer Matthew Hayden came in support of Bhuvneshwar and called him a “good finisher.”
“I disagree with that, I think he can and has been a very good finisher. I think that’s his role, I mean, obviously, his role is to take wickets up front but if your skipper wants an over or two from you at the end, then he can do that,” Hayden told Star Sports.
Bhuvneshwar has proved to be really expensive in the death overs in the last few matches. In the recently concluded Asia Cup, the pacer leaked 19 and 14 runs in the 19th over in the defeats against Pakistan and Sri Lanka, respectively.
Coming to the match, it was Hardik’s second T20I half-century, and the knock was especially crucial as India scored 208/6 in their innings. Earlier, KL Rahul (55 off 35) and Suryakumar Yadav (46 off 25) had laid the platform for India.
However, it was not enough as Australia chased down the target with four deliveries to spare.
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Cameron Green’s 61 off 30 deliveries at the top of the order and Matthew Wade’s unbeaten 45 off 21 batting at No.7 guided the visitors to a 1-0 series lead.
Axar Patel shone with the ball, taking three wickets for just 17 runs off his four overs, but the rest of the Indian bowlers were taken to the cleaners by the Australian batters.
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