World champion Australia trampled the world's number one team India by four wickets in the first T20 International match played in Mohali. The Indian team could not defend this score even after scoring 208 runs for 6 wickets and Australia achieved the highest run chase ever against India in T20I cricket. Australia had earlier achieved the target of 191 runs on 27 February 2019, the biggest run chase against India.
Cameron Green played an innings of 61 runs in 30 balls with the help of 8 fours and four sixes for Australia chasing the target of 209 runs from India. Apart from him, Matthew Wade played an unbeaten knock of 45 runs in 21 balls with six fours and two sixes. At the same time, Steven Smith contributed 35 and captain Aaron Finch contributed 22 runs.
Earlier, India set a target of 209 for Australia, thanks to explosive fifties from Hardik Pandya (71 not out) and Lokesh Rahul (55). Australia won the toss and invited India to bat first. Despite the early dismissals of Rohit Sharma (11) and Virat Kohli (02), India added 46 runs in the powerplay with the bat. Rahul scored 55 runs in 35 balls with the help of four fours and three sixes and shared a 68-run partnership for the third wicket with Suryakumar Yadav while answering questions related to strike rate. Suryakumar played an innings of 46 runs in 25 balls hitting two fours and four sixes before being dismissed.
Axar Patel was also dismissed for six runs in the 16th over after the wickets of Rahul (12th over) and Suryakumar (14th over) fell. Dinesh Karthik (06) also could not contribute significantly, but Hardik Pandya scored his second T20 International fifty to take India past the 200-run mark. Pandya smashed 71 off 30 balls with seven fours and five sixes, which included three sixes in the last over. Thanks to the stormy batting of Hardik, India scored 208 runs in 20 overs adding 67 runs in the last five overs.
Batting first, India crossed the 200-run mark against Australia for the first time. For Australia, Nathan Ellis took three wickets for 30 runs in four overs, while Josh Hazlewood got two and Cameron Green got one wicket.
