Kohli fifty drives India to 188/3 against Australia

On a high after a dominating the show in the first Twenty20 International, India will aim to hold on to their current form and, most importantly, seal the three-match series when they face Australia in the second match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground here on Friday. Suresh Raina, who has been missing in action from the worldwide circuit, gave adequate support to Kohli with his knock of 41 runs.

Spinners Ravindra Jadeja (2-21) and Ravichandran Ashwin (2-28) mopped up the top order in quick succession to finish with two wickets each as Australia was bowled out for 151 with three balls to spare.

But the dismissal triggered an Australian collapse as India eventually won the match by 37 runs. It was only in the final over when James Faulkner rattled the stumps to get rid of Raina, who missed out on his fifty by nine runs.

Smith was answering questions from broadcaster Channel Nine’s commentators while he was in the middle with Aaron Finch as Australia chased down India’s 188 runs during Tuesday’s match at Adelaide Oval. He had conceded 19 runs in the first over with five wides. India hold a 1-0 lead after winning by 37 runs in Adelaide. India too brought in Hardik Pandya for his worldwide debut, while Jasprit Bumrah was handed his first T20I cap.

Shane Watson (12) and Chris Lynn (17) both fell trying to lift the scoring rate and the remaining batsmen put up little resistance.

Beyond Australia’s fielding woes, it was the brilliance of Indian maestro Virat Kohli that undid their efforts last night. On the other hand, Australia’s debutant, Travis Head was lbw to Jadeja for 2 from 5 balls.

“So it was my fault and I’ve just got to be better next time”.

“I really like playing here, would like to take the pitch to everywhere I go”.

“We didn’t help ourself with our catching, it is something that we have seriously got to look at”, he said. He said he and his teammates should not get preoccupied with thumping boundaries off the spinners and should instead look for gaps so they can score twos. Allrounder Shane Watson halted the march, picking Rohit and Shikhar Dhawan’s wicket while conceding just one run in his first over on his return to the team.

“Everything came together nicely and it was good to get that win under the belt”, man-of-the-match Kohli said. At the end of the day, no one means to drop them, everyone trains hard and everyone caught them beautifully in practice yesterday.

Finch said it was near futile setting a field for Kohli, given the strokeplayer’s soft hands, supple wrists and twinkling feet.