Australia vs India: Virat Kohli takes visitors home in style to level series

Indian skipper Virat Kohli was at his absolute best as he finished off things in style to beat Australia by six wickets to level the three-match series 1-1 at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Sunday.

Kohli played a masterclass innings of 61 off 41 balls and he along with Dinesh Karthik (22 off 18 balls) stitched a 60-run undefeated stand that took India over the line after the bowlers restricted the hosts to 164/6 in their 20 overs.

The Indian chase got off to a rollicking start with Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma pummeling the Aussie bowlers to score 67 inside 5.2 overs before ace speedster Mitchell Starc sent back the left-hander to land a blow to the chase. That dismissal seemed to have an effect on the chase and Roht, who had scored 23 found it tough to carry on in the same vein before he was undone by a beauty of a delivery from Adam Zampa.

The chase lost that spark as the Australians clawed back into the contest. The quick wickets of KL Rahul (14) and Rishabh Pant (0) pegged the innings back further. While Rahul could muster just 14 runs off 20 balls hitting one six in the process, Pant fell on the first ba

The fear of not losing the series might have added that extra sense of confidence in the Australian batsmen who got their innings off to a good start as skipper Aaron Finch and D’Arcy Short scored 68 runs in 8.3 overs before the former, having been given a life earlier top-edged one into the sky while attempting a sweep off Kuldeep Yadav and Krunal Pandya was present at short fine leg to hand India the breakthrough.

Five runs later, Krunal got his name in the wickets column by trapping Short right in front of the wicket. The off-spinner wasn’t done yet. In the very next ball, he sent back Ben McDermott in a similar fashion and soon found himself on a hattrick.
Although he couldn’t get one, he surely made his presence felt in the innings as he ended with four wickets, conceding 36 runs. His figures also became the best by a spinner in T20Is Down Under.

With India continuously chipping away at the wickets which undoubtedly thwarted the flow of runs for the hosts, cameos from Marcus Stoinis (25 off 15) and Nathan Coulter-Nile (13 off 7 balls) to help Australia post 164/6 at the end of their 20 overs.

Brief scores: India 168/4 (Virat Kohli 61*, Shikhar Dhawan 41; Adam Zampa 1/22) beat Australia 164/6 ( D’Arcy Short 33, Aaron Finch 28; Krunal Pandya 4/36) by six wickets.