India beat Australia by nine wickets

Ranchi : Skipper Virat Kohli played a sweet cameo after yet another impressive show by the bowling unit as India comfortably beat Australia by nine wickets in a rain-curtailed opening T20 International, here on Saturday.

It was the seventh consecutive win for India in the shortest format against the Aussies, the last win came way back in 2012 at Dhaka in the ICC World T20.

After chinaman Kuldeep Yadav (2/16 in 4 overs) yet again bamboozled the visitors alongside Jasprit Bumrah (2/17 in 3 overs) which saw them score 118 for 8 in 18.4 overs. India were left to chase a revised target of 48 in 6 overs via DLS method.

Kohli’s 14-ball-22 not out had three boundaries and Shikhar Dhawan also hit three fours in his unbeaten 15 as they cruised to the target in 5.3 overs, taking a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Rohit Sharma hit debutant left-arm pacer Jason Behrendorff for a boundary and flicked Nathan Coulter-Nile for a six before being cleaned up.

However, the third over bowled by Andrew Tye decisively clinched the match in India’s favour as Dhawan and Kohli got a boundary each to get 11 runs.

After that it became a cakewalk as Coulter-Nile’s next over produced nine runs.

With six needed off the final over bowled by Dan Christian, Kohli smacked the third delivery for a boundary to finish it off in style.

Opting to bowl, Kohli’s bowlers did not take their foot off the pedal as Australia were restricted to a meagre 118 for 8 when rain stopped play after 18.4 overs.

 Australia’s batting woes continued as they once again failed to read Yadav’s left-arm wrist spin.

Man-of-the-match Yadav was complemented well by Bumrah’s toe-crushing yorkers. Yuzvendra Chahal (1/23 in 4 overs) also played his part to perfection.