On Sunday night, a beautiful batting surface at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium was used for a number of great innings. Cameron Green set the tone for the game with a 21-ball 52 that showed how powerful and far he could hit. Tim David’s 54 off 27 balls in the slog overs gave the Australian innings a late boost, and Virat Kohli’s 63 off 48 balls was also in top form. Suryakumar Yadav kept putting in all of his effort to shade, which says a lot about how good his strokeplay was that night.
Yadav came in to bat when India was 30/2 and needed 187 to win the third and final T20. He scored 69 out of 36 balls, with five fours and sixes each, which was an amazing show of strokes. India won by six wickets, giving them a 2-1 lead in the series.
After three years, Hyderabad had its first international match. The stadium was full of people long before the toss. When Rohit Sharma won, they cheered loudly.
When India started chasing, all eyes were on their openers. However, KL Rahul was bowled out for one, and Sharma got tight while pulling and hit the ball to deep square leg. But Kohli and Yadav’s explosive 104-run partnership at the third wicket helped the silent crowd speak up again.
In the third over, Australia’s captain, Aaron Finch, brought in Adam Zampa to put pressure on Kohli, but Kohli was on his own. He started by driving the leg-spinner past cover. Then, in the sixth over, he let loose on Josh Hazlewood, hitting a six and a four to bring the score to 50 runs. In the ninth over, a lofted on-drive for six off Zampa stopped everyone from breathing.
Everything about Yadav was great. He started the eighth over by hitting Maxwell for two fours. Then he hit some amazing sixes, first stepping down to pacer Daniel Sams and then lofting the ball into the crowd. India was at 91/2 after 10 overs, and the pair kept hitting fours to keep the needed rate from going too high.
In 10.6 overs, the 100 was reached when a back-of-the-length ball from Pat Cummins was hit hard into the midwicket stands. Yadav got 50 runs in 29 balls, hitting three sixes and four fours. When India got to 102 (59 balls), Yadav was on 68 and Kohli was on 33.
Green was the only bowler who could stop Yadav. He only gave Yadav four singles in the 12th over. Yadav, on the other hand, made the most of Zampa’s next over by hitting two stunning sixes. First, he stepped out to take the ball on the full and hit it over long-on. This got him to fifty off of 29 balls. The next pitch was perfectly hit over the cover. In the next over, Josh Hazlewood was hit for a four and a six. However, he hit the last ball to the long-off fielder, which made the Australian bowlers very happy.
When he was out, the score was 134, and 53 runs had to be scored in 36 balls. The game was already over, though. After that, it was hard to get boundaries, and India needed 11 in the last over to win. Before Pandya hit four off the last ball, Kohli hit the first ball for six.
Yadav said, “I’ve always wanted to say what I think, and my thoughts have always been the same.” I train like this in the nets. Just loving at No. 4 comes with a lot of responsibilities and challenges as well (for T20 WC). You shouldn’t be afraid to say what you want. You must be savvy.
But India’s bowling wasn’t nearly as good as it could have been. As India’s poor bowling kept getting in the way of their preparations for the T20 World Cup, the pace attack ruined the good work done by the spinners.
Left-arm spinner Axar Patel once again stood out among bowlers with a three-wicket haul (8 wickets in the series). Yuzvendra Chahal helped out in a good way. The rest of the bowling wasn’t really anything special.
Australia got off to a great start and kept it up all the way through. In the 18th and 19th overs, India lost its way. Tim David chased Bhuvneshswar Kumar in the 18th over. He scored 16 runs in the last three balls, which took away 21 runs from the over. Bumrah was hitting for 18 runs in the 19th. For the first time in his career, Bumrah got 50 runs in four overs.
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