Having returned from a successful tour of Australia and and a fairly successful tour of New Zealand, India hosted Australia for T20I and ODI series.
Both the Indian and Australian players, along with match officials observed two minutes of silence to pay homage to the CRPF soldiers martyred in the Pakistani terror attack in Pulwama on 14 February.
In the first T20I at Vishakhapatnnam, Australia won the toss and chose to field. The Australian fast bowlers adjusted their pace on a sluggish wicket and the Indian batsmen could not accelerate. KL Rahul (50), Virat Kohli (24) and MS Dhoni (29 not out) got the runs, but could not accelerate.
Nathan Coulter-Nile (3-26) was the pick of the Kangaroo bowlers.
Australia had a disastrous start with opener Marcus Stoinis (run out) and skipper Aaron Finch (bowled) sent packing to the pavilion. The mercurial Glenn Maxwell (56)and southpaw opener D’Arcy Short (37) took Australia on course to a victory. Jasprit Bumrah (3-16) kept things tight, only for Umesh Yadav to spoil everything with tripe bowling in the 20th over. Australia chased down the target off the last ball.
Nathan Coulter-Nile was named Man-of-the-Match.
Picture credit: @bcci Twitter
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