Mumbai: Opener Gautam Gambhir’s hurricane half-century and some responsible batting by Robin Uthappa and Yuvraj Singh helped Twenty20 world champions India crush the mighty Australians by seven wickets in the first ever Twenty20 International in India at the Brabourne Stadium here on Saturday.
It was indeed a Saturday night fever for the packed stadium at the Cricket Club of India as the Indians went about their task of taming the Kangaroos on a humid night with clinical precision. Continue reading below
Set to get 167 for victory, the hosts never looked in any kind of trouble from the word go as their young brigade marched authoritatively towards the victory to keep their slate clean against the Aussies in the Twenty20 format of the game.
Despite losing Virender Sehwag early, the Indians got to fifty in just five overs. The fifth over of the Indian innings, bowled by Brett Lee, yielded as many as 20 runs with the left-right batting combination of Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa going all out to decimate the Australian bowling.
In the very next over the Indian batsmen plundered 18 runs.
Gambhir and Uthappa added 50 runs for the second wicket off just 27 balls, which set the tone for the run chase by the home team.
After adding 82 runs off 52 balls for the second wicket with Gambhir, Uthappa was caught by Gilchrist off Michael Clarke for a well-made 35 off 26 balls with six hits to the fence.
Gambhir, after his marathon effort in the Twenty20 final against Pakistan less than a month ago, scored 63 off 52 balls with six fours and a six, before being caught by Ponting off rookie fast bowler Ben Hilfenhaus. He added 41 runs for the third wicket with Yuvraj Singh.
Yuvraj contributed with a fine unbeaten 31 off just 25 balls with a four and three sixes while skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni scored nine off five balls with a single six that got the winning runs for the hosts.
Earlier, Ponting, too, scored a superb half-century after electing to bat first at Mumbai.
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Indian bowlers, playing their first ever Twenty20 match on their home soil ever, did well to restrict the Australians to just 166 runs after the Aussie skipper, first in the company of Matthew Hayden and then with Andrew Symonds, threatened to take his team to a huge score.
After the Indian spinners had slowed down the scoring rate in the middle overs, Ponting along with Michael Clarke took Australia to a semblance of respectability.
The visitors finished on 166-5 from their stipulated 20 overs.
Aussie vice-captain Adam Gilchrist set the tone for the visitors with three boundaries, in the very first over, before Rudra Pratap Singh bowled him for 12. Ponting then joined Hayden and added 48 runs for the second wicket before Harbhajan Singh bowled the latter for 17 off 19 balls.
Andrew Symonds, the Man of the Series award winner in the just concluded One-Day series, was run out after scoring 20 while Brad Hodge, who has been out of sorts throughout the seven match ODI series against India, was bowled by Irfan Pathan for another low score.
Ponting added 42 runs off just four overs with Michael Clarke (25) for the fifth wicket before Pathan scalped him for a well-made 76 off 53 balls, including 13 boundaries.
For India, Murali Kartik and Virender Sehwag were back in the playing eleven replacing Joginder Sharma and Yousuf Pathan respectively.
Matthew Hayden who missed the last two One-Dayers due to a hip injury was back in the Australian team while fast bowler Stuart Clark, too, was recalled replacing left-arm pacer Mitchell Johnson.
The Teams:
India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (WK, C), Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh (VC), Gautam Gambhir, Robin Uthappa, Rohit Sharma, Harbhajan Singh, S Sreesnath, Irfan Pathan, Murali Kartik and Rudra Pratap Singh.
Australia: Ricky Ponting (C), Adam Gilchrist (WK, VC), Matthew Hayden, Brad Haddin, Andrew Symonds, Brad Hodge, Michael Clarke, Nathan Bracken, Brett Lee, Stuart Clarke and Ben Hilfenhaus.
