India score 188/3 against Australia in first T20I

The last ball of the Indian innings was pushed towards long-on for a couple by Kohli whose fine form continues to haunt the Australian bowlers.

The Australians now travel to Melbourne to prepare for what is a must-win on Friday night to keep the three-game T20 series alive.

In the seven overs the spinners bowled outside the powerplay, so having the protection of five outfielders, they produced a combined 4-32 off seven overs.

The Indian team is always surrounded by fans during practice and travel, but the women contingent among them reserves its special attention for the stylish right-hander.

Finch twice hit Jadeja for two in his first over.

Kohli pounded nine fours and two sixes in his knock, punishing Australia’s fast bowlers. “It’s about entertainment”, Warner told reporters here ahead of their second T20 game on January 29 at the MCG. R Ashwin dismissed Finch to almost end all hopes for Australia. “It’s great that I can actually give people at home the occasion of what we are trying to achieve when we are out there in different situations”.

“The run rate was up around 10-an-over like it was for most of the first 12-13 overs”. Both India and Australia are in the same group in the upcoming championship and will play the match in Mohali. There was a moment in the game where Chris Lynn thumped a Hardik Pandy delivery on the off-side and the Delhi dasher dived full length at sweeper, dived, picked the ball up and flung the ball just above the stumps, nearly effecting a run-out. Jadeja and Ashwin had more or less delivered the knockout punch. The debutant returned later to castle the unsafe James Faulkner with a yorker in the 18th over and wrapped up the Australian innings with the wicket of Cameron Boyce in the last over.

Yuvraj Singh’s arrival with the willow had to wait for another game as Dhoni came in to finish off the Indian innings. With the T20 World Cup coming very soon, Dhoni will be heartened by the fact that his bowlers have finally started to take the load off the batsmen. He was probably suggesting that Smith had been chirping a lot when he was batting or before the match which obviously didn’t seem to go down well with the flamboyant batsman. “Otherwise it becomes slightly hard to consistently hit them for big boundaries”.

Ravindra Jadeja (2-21) dismissed Steven Smith and Ravichandran Ashwin (2-28) sent back Finch (44) to derail Australia’s chase and the hosts eventually folded in 19.3 overs.