The first T20I match between India and Australia turned out to be a nail-biter, with both teams putting on some brilliant performances with the bat. Riding on the stellar knocks of Cameron Green and Matthew Wade’s unbeaten 45 off 21 balls, the Australian cricket team defeated India by four wickets in the first T20 International, to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Earlier, Hardik Pandya (71 not out) and KL Rahul (55) had smashed half-centuries to help India reach a mammoth total of 208 runs in 20 overs after Australia captain Aaron Finch won the toss and elected to field first. Jasprit and Rishabh were not included in the playing XI for team India. However, it was the bowling performance of Team India that was exposed badly as Bhuvneshwar and Harshal went for a combined total of 101 (52+49) in their eight overs.
Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya was asked about the ‘turning point in the game’ during the post-match press conference and he gave a rather sarcastic reply to the reporter’s question. Responding to the question from a journalist in the presser, Hardik said:
“Aap batao, mujhe nahi pata, humko pata hota toh wahi nahi rok dete na. (You tell me, I don’t know. If we knew, we would have stopped them in the field)“,
Apart from Axar Patel, all other Indian bowlers turned out to be quite expensive. Some of them even pointed fingers at the 18th over of the second innings, where Harshal conceded 22 runs. However, Hardik Pandya stressed upon the importance of not pointing out a particular over or player. He said:
“Dekho sir, pinpoint nahi kar sakte. Unke time pe bhi ek over mein 24-25 run aye, usse kuch farak nahi padta. Bilateral series hai, aur do matches hai usmein koshish karenge kuch accha karne ki.” (See, we can’t pinpoint on any over, they also conceded more than 20 runs in an over. There are still two matches in the series, so we will make a come back)
He added: “There was no dew, you need to give credit to them. Maybe we could’ve executed our plans better, our” deliveries could have been but they played some good shots,”
