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India came into the series as favourites after registering 9 consecutive T20I series wins as Australia without Warner and Smith were facing their fair share of troubles. But things did not go according to the visitors as the home team won the match by 4 runs. Even the return of Virat Kohli could not help India chase down the target set by Australia.
After winning the toss, India's new ball bowlers - Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah - were right up to the task as they bowled one tight over after another. Khaleel Ahmed who was introduced in the fifth over got the wicket of D'Arcy Short off his first ball. In the powerplay, India restricted Australia to a 38-1 which is one run less than the average at Gabba.
After a great first over, Khaleel's second over couldn't have been much worse. Chris Lynn who was fairly quiet till then hit three sixes in the same over to provide some impetus to the Australian innings.
Just when things seemed to go the Australian way, Kuldeep Yadav sent back the Australian captain to the pavilion in the ninth over. Aaron Finch who was dropped by Virat Kohli in the fourth over got out trying swing hard against the spin of Kuldeep.
In his very next over, Kuldeep dismissed the dangerous Lynn who was looking in ominous form. Lynn already hit four sixes before lobbing the ball straight to the bowler at the start of the eleventh over.
The wicket of Lynn did not have a huge effect on the Australian innings as Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell kept the scoreboard going. While Stoinis hit two boundaries off the bowling Khaleel, Maxwell hit three consecutive sixes in Krunal Pandya's third over.
The two Australian right-handed batsmen did not let go off Pandya even in his final over. They clobbered a six each in his final over and Krunal ended with the figures of 55-0 from his four overs.
The 17th over bowled by Jasprit Bumrah was interrupted by rain and as a result, the match was reduced to 17 overs per side. While Australia scored 158-4 in the prescribed overs, India's target was adjusted to 174.
The Indian chase was mainly dependent on two key batsmen - Shikhar Dhawan and Dinesh Karthik. While half-centurion Dhawan held the major portion of the innings together for India, it was Karthik who kept India in the game in the latter part.
Every other batsman got out without contributing much. Dhawan got out after scoring a 42-ball 76 and the onus completely fell onto Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant. Pant too was dismissed after his 15-ball 20 and that left Karthik alone.
Karthik did his best to repeat his Nidahas trophy heroics but could not take the side home. He scored 30 runs off just 13 balls but got out with the side needing 11 runs from 2 balls. As a result, India lost the match by 4 runs in the first match of the series.
Here's how Twitter reacted to India's loss against Australia:
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