India took on Australia in a warm-up match ahead of their T20 World Cup campaign at the Gabba in Brisbane on Monday and they edged past the hosts by just six runs in what turned out to be a thrilling battle.
Rohit Sharma and his men posted 186/7 batting first, riding on fifties from KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav. Both batters looked in good form as they played some magnificent shots all around the ground. Pacer Kane Richardson was the pick of the Australian bowlers as he claimed four wickets, whereas Mitchell Starc, Glenn Maxwell and Ashton Agar picked up a wicket each.
Australia got off to a good start as both Mitchell Marsh and Aaron Finch looked in great touch. Marsh was going all guns blazing as he made 35 from 18 deliveries, but Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave India a much-needed breakthrough as he cleaned up Marsh in the sixth over of the powerplay.
That didn’t slow Finch down, though. He continued to play with his aggressive approach and at 145/2 in the 16th over, they were in a firm position to win the match. However, things changed soon as Australia lost wickets in quick succession.
The 19th over of the innings turned out to be the turning point in the match as Harshal Patel dismissed Finch with an excellent slow yorker for 76 from 54 deliveries and then Virat Kohli went on to effect a brilliant run out to send Tim David back to the pavilion.
Australia needed 11 to win from the final over and it was still possible to achieve that. But Mohammed Shami bowled a brilliant final over, which was also his first of the match, to claim figures of 1-0-4-3. That also includes a sensational catch by Virat Kohli at the long-on boundary to dismiss Pat Cummins. Australia were finally bowled out for 180 in their quota of 20 overs as India won the match by six runs.
