Canberra is proving to be lucky for the visitors. Amazing win for India in the start of the series, they are establishing themselves as a complete T20 side. It all began with Finch winning the toss and opting to bowl first. Indian team brought in Sundar, Samson, Pandey and Deepak in place of Kuldeep, Gill, Thakur and Bumrah respectively. While Australia brought in Darcy Short and leggie Mitchell Swepson in place of Warner and Carey. Rahul and Dhawan opened the innings for India. The opening partnership was short lived as Dhawan got bowled on a yorker by Starc in the 3rd over. Rahul played with a positive intent and made full use of the powerplay and it looked like he continued from where he left in the IPL. He scored a half century while on the other end wickets kept falling, first Kohli, then Samson and then Manish. Samson somewhat impressed with a tiny knock of 23 runs comprising of one boundary and one six. Zampa and Swepson, the two leg spinners hunted in a pair and bowled nice lengths which troubled the Indian batsmen, they took 1-1 wicket each, Zampa was very economical as he conceded only 20 runs in his 4 overs. After a while, Rahul also departed as Henriques got the better of him. The situation became very critical for India as the innings stood at 92-5 in 13.5 overs. Hardik and Jadeja were again on the crease in Canberra together, both revived the innings a little but Hardik got out after some time. Now it was time for another Jadeja special, he played an excellent cameo in the last 3 overs and scored an unbeaten 44 from 23 deliveries. With the help of his knock, India ended with 161 on the board. Henriques took the most wickets (3) for Australia and proved to be a great inclusion. Unfortunately Jadeja got hit on the helmet while batting and wasn't able to participate in the second innings. India demanded Chahal as a concussion substitute for Jadeja and match referee David Boon agreed to that, but Australian coach Justin Langer was upset with this decision as he argued that Jadeja has been rested because of a stretch in his hamstring and India was misusing the law. Nonetheless, Chahal got included in the playing xi and it proved be a blessing in disguise for India. Australia started their chase on a high, scoring 50 runs in the powerplay without the loss of wicket. Darcy Short and Aaron Finch batted aggressively and scored boundaries on the new ball and it looked like the chase was going to be a piece of cake for Australia. India too helped the batting pair and dropped some catches, Virat himself dropped a sitter and the horrible Indian fielding was again set on display. India got its first breakthrough in the form of Finch, Chahal got the wicket of his RCB colleague and salted the wounds of Australian coach Justin Langer. It was just a matter of one setback and after that wickets kept on falling in quick succession. Smith the star of one day series got caught on 12 while trying to slog sweep Chahal over deep mid wicket. Maxwell got LBW out to Natarajan after scoring only 2 runs. Firstly he was given not out by on field umpire but Virat used the review and it proved to be successful as Maxi was plumb in front of wickets. Then Darcy Short and Moises Henriques got together in the middle and created a partnership, the latter looked good and played with a strike rate of 150 and had a great day in the field, first while bowling and then while chasing with the bat. Darcy Short was departed by Natarajan at a score of 34 and overall Australian innings stood at 113-4. Matthew Wade followed him to the pavilion after a short while by playing a loose lofted shot to Chahal. The leggie took a total of 3 wickets in the match and announced that he is still the best T20 bowler of India after Bumrah and he cannot be left out of the xi. Jadeja's concussion proved to be a match defining moment for India as Chahal got the oppurtunity to play and he delivered it for his team. After that Deepak Chahar departed Henriques back to the hut who played a fighting knock of 30 runs in 20 balls but unfortunately found no one on the other end to rely on. Australia ended with 150/7 in 20 overs and India won the match by 11 runs. Natarajan took 3 wickets on his T20I debut and bowled outstandingly in his 4 overs, executed his yorkers well and used the variations wisely. A great bowler in the making for India. Kohli and co. goes 1-0 up in this series with 2 matches to go, both of them will place at Sydney where India has a poor record. Let's see if Aussies can make a comeback or the visitors will seal the series on Sunday.
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