Hardik Pandya and Shikhar Dhawan power India to a series win against Australia in the second encounter.
Men in Blues carrying the winning momentum to a second game of the three-match Twenty20 Internationals series between Australia and India, as the visitor thrashed the home team by six wickets.
Hardik Pandya and Shikhar Dhawan power India to a series win against Australia with one game to spare. Virat Kohli and Co. have never lost any T20I away series since February 2019. This is India’s straight 10th T20I victory.
Earlier, India won the toss and elected to bowl first.
Australia Innings:
The decision of inviting the opponents to bat first looked unusual as a stand-in Australian skipper made the hell out of Indian bowlers in the powerplay. Wade banged on to score a brilliant half-century inside 7 overs.
However, he got out after Virat dropped a simple catch but in retaliation, he got run out due to the misunderstanding with Steve Smith at another end. Steve Smith continued to shine with the bat as he scored 46 runs from 38 balls.
However, Indian bowlers were successful in giving breakthroughs on regular occasions. At the end of the 1st innings, Moises Henriques and Marcus Stoinis propelled Australia to a heavy total in 20 overs.
Australia managed to get to 194 runs in 20 overs as Mathew Wade and Steve Smith shines with the bat.
For India young sensation T. Natarajan picked two scalps while Chahal and Thakur got one each.
India Innings:
To counter the mammoth total against Australia, India got a perfect start with openers KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan. Andrew Tye got Rahul in the 6th over of the innings with a ball-carrying top edge.
Shikhar Dhawan and skipper Virat Kohli shared a match-winning partnership to set a tone for the rest of the overs. Dhawan got out 52 short just after completing his half-century.
Virat Kohli then picked some of the fancy shorts to propel through the huge total but was caught behind with a flying catch off Danial Sams.
Hardik Pandya took complete charge of the innings, finishing the game with consecutive sixes with two balls to spare.
Pandya scored 42 runs off just 22 balls which includes 3 boundaries and 2 maximums. With the win, India sealed the series with an undefendable 2-0 lead against Australia.
The 3rd and final T20I will be at the same venue on 08th December, Tuesday.
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