India bounced back in the series against Australia by winning the second T20I, in Nagpur, by 6 wickets. With the series levelled at 1-1, both the teams fly to Hyderabad for the third and deciding T20I, which will be played on Sunday.
The match, at the VCA Stadium, was delayed by two hours due to wet outfield. Finally, after a long wait, the game got underway as an 8-over-per-side affair, with Rohit Sharma, the Indian skipper, electing to bowl first after winning the toss.
As in the first T20I, Axar Patel was again India’s best bowler – returning with terrific figures of 2/13 in 2 overs in a game where runs were scored at over 11 runs an over. The left-arm spinner castled two of Australia’s most destructive batters – Glenn Maxwell and Tim David.
Also impressive was Jasprit Bumrah, who was returning to international cricket after more than two months, his layoff forced due to rest and then back injury which had ruled him out of the Asia Cup. In his first over on return, Bumrah bowled Australian skipper Aaron Finch with a stunning yorker to announce his comeback.
Rohit Sharma guides India in a steep chase
Chasing 91 in 8 overs, India skipper Rohit Sharma played a blistering knock of 46* off 20 balls. KL Rahul scored 10 off 6, Virat Kohli 11 off 6; Suryakumar Yadav bagged a first-ball duck and Hardik Pandya struggled for his run-a-ball 9.
With 9 runs needed off the last 6 balls, Dinesh Karthik smoked Daniel Sams for a six and a four to complete the chase. Rohit Sharma was awarded as the Player of the Match for his brilliant knock, keeping the required run rate in India’s grasp till the end.
Mohammad Kaif compared Axar with Bumrah, regretfully deletes his tweet
Former India batsman Mohammad Kaif made a weird tweet in which he said that Axar Patel’s significant is like Jasprit Bumrah to Team India because the spinner can bowl in any phase. Upon realizing that he’d made a blunder Kaif soon took down the tweet, but fans had taken a screenshot of that.
“Ek aur bumrah mil gaya team ko naam hai Axar patel. Koi bhi over do wicket lega apna babu. #matchwinner @akshar2026,” Kaif had tweeted but soon deleted it.
