Australia vs India, 1st T20I: Stoinis, Zampa help Australia win after Dhawan’s blinder

After 17 overs, India 169-7

India looked primed to win this; they had the momentum but then lost wickets regularly to end up on the losing side. Big confidence booster for an Australian side that has struggles to win games across formats. Dhawan’s brilliant knock in the early going kept India in the game even as none of the other top-order batsmen got going.

But Zampa’s brilliant spell (4-0-22-2) got Australia back into the game and India failed to deal with the pressure at the death. Pant (20) and Karthik (30) made it close but Australia just had a bit too much in the end.

After 15 overs, India 150-4

Pant and Karthik have dragged India back into the match thanks to some big-hitting and nervous bowling by the Aussies. Andrew Tye got carted for 25 runs in one over and that totally changed the complexion of the game. The Aussies, though, were guilty of bowling a poor line and conceding extras too.

After 12 overs, India 109-4

Two big wickets for Australia. Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan are back in the dressing room and Australia will fancy their chances at the moment. Kohli looked out of sorts today and that crept into his batting too. But the big wicket was Dhawan, who had been striking it well from ball one. His upper cut found the fielder in the deep.

After 10 overs, India 93-2

Adam Zampa has come in and stemmed the tide. While Dhawan has looked very good, the other batsmen haven’t found the going as easy. KL Rahul was promoted up the order ahead of Kohli but he didn’t make the most of his chance and was stumped off Zampa. His foot was on the line.

Just 8 overs to go in the match now and India need 81 off 42. The key for India is Dhawan, he needs to take his team through.

After 5 overs, India 41-1

Shikhar Dhawan got India’s innings off to a rollicking start – he played shots all around the wicket and wasn’t afraid to even use his feet to the bowlers. He has 32 off India’s runs at this point. He seemed to be enjoying the true bounce but Rohit Sharma (7 off 8 balls) never really got going and holed out in the deep to Finch.

The first Powerplay is over now.

End of innings: Aus 158-4 (17 overs)

Due to the rain, the match was reduced to 17 overs – which meant Australia had just just 5 balls to add something substantial to their total. They didn’t. Maxwell was dismissed first ball and not much else happened.

But Australia will be pretty happy with what they have managed to get on board. They started slowly but built their innings up through Chris Lynn initially before Maxwell and Stoinis used the long handle to some good effect. For India, Khaleel and Krunal took quite a bit of stick while Kuldeep did the star act once again.

Brief Scores: Aus 158-4 (Maxwell 46, Lynn 37, Stoinis 33; Kuldeep 2-24)

After 16.1 overs, Australia 153-3

Just after Khaleel dropped another catch (the second dropped chance on Australia’s innings, it started raining. Stoinis (31 off 18) and Maxwell (46 off 23) have put on 78 runs in 6 overs. Play has been stopped for the moment.

There was also an incident where Maxwell didn’t get hold of the ball and it went straight up and hit the spider cam. Luck with the Aussies too today.

After 15 overs, Australia 135-3

Kuldeep struck again to send back the dangerous Lynn (37 off 20). Lynn, who looked so good against the pacemen, wasn’t too sure which way the ball was going to turn and ended up plonking the ball back to the bowler for an easy caught and bowled. It was a big setback

Stoinis survived after a botched up attempt at playing the paddle reverse sweep thanks to a review. The ball would have bounced over the stumps. After that, Glenn Maxwell and Stoinis stuck together, hit the big shots, took the quick singles – in short, did everything right to drag Australia back into the game.

After 10 overs, Australia 75-2

An intriguing contest developing. Chris Lynn seems to have got his eye in – evident as he smashed Khaleel for three sixes in one over. But at the same time, Australia won’t be very sure of what a good total is against this Indian team. Perhaps it was that anxiety that forced Aaron Finch to try and smash Kuldeep Yadav into the stands. But he misread the google and the leading edge went straight to Khaleel at backward point.

After 5 overs, Australia 32-1

India made a good start to the match with both Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah keeping the ball up and giving the batsmen little to work with. D’Arcy Short played and missed a few times, as did Finch. But the innings only seemed to kick off after Finch, on 6, was dropped by Kohli. The ball was struck hard and Kohli got his hands up in time but the ball just burst through. Things got better for India when Khaleel Ahmed got a wicket with his first ball. Short went for the big shot without having a look at the bowler, ended up hitting a skier which Kuldeep held on to very well.

Toss

India won the toss and elected to bat first in the 1st T20I against Australia at Brisbane.

The wicket has a healthy covering on grass and the ball is expected to fly through. The decision to bowl first will allow India to understand the pitch a little better before they come out to bat.

Having named the 12 yesterday, India chose to keep Yuzvendra Chahal out of the playing XI – sticking to the team that played against the West Indies.

It will be interesting to see how Khaleel Ahmed does in helpful conditions.

Aaron Finch says Australia would have bowled first as well if they had won the toss but he thinks there are runs in the surface.

Australia have made one change. Leg spinner Adam Zampa comes in for Nathan Coulter-Nile.

India XI: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (c), KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Jasprit Bumrah

Australia XI: Aaron Finch (c), D’Arcy Short, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Ben McDermott, Alex Carey (wk), Andrew Tye, Jason Behrendorff, Adam Zampa, Billy Stanlake