Mohammed Shami doubted his fitness to rest with a spectacular 20th over as India defeated Australia by six runs in their first T20 World Cup warm-up match on Monday.
After Australia decided to bowl at the Gabba, K L Rahul (57 off 33) and Suryakumar Yadav (50 off 33) slammed entertaining half-centuries to lead India to 186 for seven.
Australia was headed for a comfortable victory with six wickets remaining and needing 16 runs off the last 12 balls until Shami, Harshal Patel, and fielder, Virat Kohli of India, turned the game around.
After a protracted case of COVID-19, Shami, who hadn’t played in a competitive game since July, was here to bowl the game’s last over and had a significant influence.
He struck yorker after yorker, taking three wickets in the over in addition to a runout.
Jasprit Bumrah was injured; therefore, Shami was added to the team as a substitute.
After beating early on, Harshal Patel came through in the last over, allowing just five runs in an over that also included a spectacular run out of a Kohli straight smash.
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The top Indian batsman also pulled off an incredible one-handed catch out of thin air at the boundary line to eliminate Pat Cummins.
However, there are still issues with India’s bowling going into their first match against Pakistan on October 23.
“There is space for development, but I want the bowlers to be more reliable. You must keep things simple and strike the deck hard. Overall, we played well; they had a solid partnership, which put pressure on us “said Rohit Sharma, the captain. Regarding Shami’s attempt to win the game, he said: “We wanted to give him an over since he was returning after a lengthy absence. I wanted to challenge him, so I gave him the last over to bowl, and you saw what he did.”
Earlier, the Indian hitters took advantage of the wicket’s speed and bounce; notably, Rahul scored most of his team’s runs during the powerplay to get them to 69 without loss.
At the other end, Rohit (15 off 14) was only a bystander as Rahul produced one elegant stroke after another.
Rohit hardly got to bat and could get his first run only in the fifth over of the openers’ 78-run stand.
Rahul, whose strike rate has previously come under scrutiny, seemed to be in top form after returning from an injury layoff.
His innings included some lovely cover drives off the pacers, but his two sixes off Cummins—one a precise pull and the other a whip off a good-length ball that flew over deep midwicket—were his highlight blows.
All the Indian hitters had some quality time in the middle except Hardik Pandya (2), who was outplayed by a slower ball from Kane Richardson.
As seen by Kohli (19 off 13), Dinesh Karthik (20 off 14), Rohit, and Rahul being caught in the deep, Australia’s more significant boundaries are already having an effect.
In an attempt to dismiss Kane Richardson over deep mid-wicket, Karthik crossed the stumps, but Glenn Maxwell caught him just inside the boundary lines. If the field had been in India, it would have been a six.
Mitchell Starc bounced Kohli out, allowing him to be caught at fine leg, while Rohit’s slog sweep fell into Maxwell’s capable hands.
After solid innings, Rahul was caught at deep midwicket after failing to return a long hop to Maxwell.
India should have been able to reach 200 with the start they had, but they fell short.
Suryakumar had previously made a fifty against Western Australia in Perth and played another excellent inning. However, as they were both struck on the helmet, he and Rahul experienced an extra bounce.