Kohli, bowlers help India beat Australia by 37 runs

The in-form Kohli faced 55 balls in his whirlwind knock, which was laced by nine fours and two sixes, to give India a respectable total of 188 for three after being put into bat at the Adelaide Oval.

Ahead of the first Twenty20 worldwide against Australia on Tuesday, Indian team director Ravi Shastri on Monday heaped praise on limited overs specialist and experienced batsman Yuvraj Singh, terming him as an impact player, match-winner and someone whose record speaks for itself.

Besides them, left-handed batsman Suresh Raina, who was dropped from the ODI squad will be waiting to prove himself once again after a successful domestic season.

Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya, who made his debut for India with this match, picked up two wickets each. Opener Rohit Sharma provided the initial thrust with 21-ball 31 before Kohli wreaked havoc on the hosts. Dhawan followed in the same over and got out to Watson after a patchy stay at the crease for 5.

Virat Kohli had played a tremendous innings of unbeaten 90 runs that helped India to give a challenging target of 189 runs to Australia.

Beyond Australia’s fielding woes, it was the brilliance of Indian maestro Virat Kohli that undid their efforts last night. “At the moment, we’ll wait and see how he goes in the T20 format”, he said. He was dismissed by James Faulkner for a 34-ball 41.

However, other reports also suggest that Kohli may have carried the grudge against Smith from the first innings, during which his opponent may have had a few words to tell him. But I had allowed us to get too far behind the run-rate from the start.

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.

Ashwin began in an expensive fashion, giving away 17 runs in the second over of the Australian innings. Steve Smith, however, teed off early to keep Australia in command. Both Indian spinners, Ashwin with 2 for 28 and Jadeja with 2 for 21 were outstanding. He has won a lot of appreciation for his score in today’s match as well as for all the runs he has piled up during the recent ODI series, scoring hundreds in two games and half centuries in two more.

“I think it was a good game”, said Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

“It’s fine to have a little bit of banter when you’re out in the field, but when someone’s out I don’t really think that’s really on”, he added.