Australia’s Steve Smith Fires Back At Virat Kohli’s Send-off Celebration

India defeated Australia by 37 runs in the first of the three-match Twenty20 worldwide (T20I) cricket series at the Adelaide Oval here on Tuesday. The Indians are likely to retain the same eleven that took the field in Adelaide as they eye a series win to boost their self-belief ahead of the World Twenty20 beginning in March.

Despite losing two wickets in the fourth over, Kohli and Suresh Raina, who hit 41, helped the tourists set a testing target after finishing 188 for three.

Australia started the chase strongly, taking 56 runs from the powerplay, but India’s spinners took over and the wickets began to fall rapidly.

Spinners Ravi Ashwin (2-28) and Ravindra Jadeja (2-21) triggered a game-defining collapse – from on track at 1-89 in the ninth over, Australia were derailed and lost their last nine wickets for just 62 runs.

Veteran pacer Shaun Tait after going for runs in the first match will look to come back strong on Friday. Faulkner returned with figures of 1-43 from 4 overs while Shane Watson was the pick of the bowlers with 2-24 in his 4 overs.

In reply, Australia got off to a thunderous start before they stifled in their chase and were eventually bundled out for 151 within 19.3 overs.

Australia’s chances were running out, with big-hitting duo Matthew Wade (5) and Faulkner (10) failing to reverse the tide as India seized the series initiative.

“We let ourselves down in the field and obviously an unbelievable innings by Virat – he’s hard to stop when he gets going”, Finch said.

Captain Aaron Finch top-scored with 44 from 33 balls but was the only Australian batsman to make an imprint – Steve Smith (21) was the only other to pass 17. India too brought in Hardik Pandya for his global debut, while Jasprit Bumrah was handed his first T20I cap.

India former skipper Sunil Gavaskar said that the way Indian team played the last match with Australia as part of the three match T20 series, looks like the team is shaping up nicely and that they look like the favorites to win the upcoming World T20 tournament.

The 34-year-old blond dismissed the unsafe Rohit Sharma (31) with his first delivery and Shikhar Dhawan (five) with his fifth.

“So there would have been some kind of pressure on him, but after the first over, I knew that whenever he comes in to bowl the second over, it will be better than his first”.

“But still, he’ll have to be more and more consistent with his line and length and that will give me a lot of confidence to consistently play him as a third seamer if the need arises”, Dhoni ended with. And once again, their attention is diverted towards the tour of New Zealand post this contest, and the World T20 comes about only as an after-thought.

Finch said the Australians had no one but themselves to blame.