THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Indian batting was like a high-speed train here at the Greenfield Stadium on Sunday night. The Gen X of Indian cricketers seems to have taken a cue from their ODI skipper Rohit Sharma’s fearless brand of cricket and produced an exhilarating batting display to help their team post 235 for four, their highestever T20 score against Australia.
On a night when the visiting bowlers struggled with the early onset of dew, Yashasvi Jaiswal (53 off 25), Ishan Kishan (52 off 32) and Ruturaj Gaikwad (58 off 43) helped themselves to blazing half-centuries while Rinku Singh (31 not out off 9) produced a near-perfect end innings cameo to virtually bat Australia out of the game.
The Indian bowlers, especially the spinners Ravi Bishnoi and Axar Patel, did well to prise out three Australian wickets inside the powerplay including the dangerous Glenn Maxwell for 12. With pacer Prasidh Krishna accounting for Steve Smith with a short ball for 19, India all but closed it out.
However, two big men Tim David and Marcus Stoinis produced a blistering counter-attack to send the modest crowd at Greenfield into silence for a while. The duo smashed 81 for the fifth wicket off just 38 balls. But Bishnoi dismissed David (37, 22 balls) in his final over to dash Australian hopes of a comeback. With Stoinis (45, 25 balls) following him back in the pavilion soon after, the Aussies could only manage 191 for nine in 20 overs as India won by 44 runs to go 2-0 up in the five-match series.
The two Indian spinners, Bishnoi (3/32) and Patel (1/25) were most impressive on a difficult night for the bowlers while Prasidh (3/35 ) made a good comeback after an ordinary outing in Vizag.
Put into bat, Indian openers Jaiswal and Gaikwad gave India a flying start. Maxwell, who came into the match in place of Aaron Hardie, was the first to bear the brunt of Jaiswal’s power hitting. He hit the off-spinner for a lofted cover drive and followed it up with a lofted sweep over square-leg for boundaries to announce his intentions. With Gaikwad also smashing a four off the final ball, Maxwell’s over, the third of the innings, went for 15.
The next over was even more fruitful for India. Jaiswal cut, pulled and glided Sean Abbott for three fours and two sixes as the Aussie looked clueless.
The southpaw then hit a hat-trick of fours in the final over of powerplay against Nathan Ellis to race to his fifty off just 24 balls.
But Jaiswal perished in an attempt to hit a fourth boundary as he only managed an outside edge and the chance was lapped up by Zampa at short third-man. The best thing about Jaiswal’s innings was that he never committed himself early and waited for the loose delivery to punish the bowlers.
Ishan ensured that the momentum was not lost. The decision to reintroduce Maxwell in the 14th over proved costly for Australia as Ishan smashed him for two sixes and a four as the part-time off-spinner conceded 38 off his two overs.
Two sixes of the next over from Tanveer Sangha saw Ishan completing his second successive fifty but was dismissed in the next over by Marcus Stoinis. Ishan smashed three sixes and four fours in his knock.
In all this carnage, Gaikwad was confidence personified at the other end and played the anchor’s role. Rinku then produced the final flourish to end it in style.
The surprising omission of leftarm seamer Jason Behrendorff didn’t help Australia’s cause.
