VISAKHAPATNAM - Jasprit Bumrah came up with a brilliant display with the white ball on Sunday but his efforts went in vain as Australia clinched a three-wicket win in the first T20I of the ongoing two-match series in Visakhapatnam.

Bumrah picked up three wickets in his four-over quota and conceded only 3 runs in the penultimate over of the match. However, Australia gunned down a 127-run total in a last-ball thriller. 14 runs came off the final over of Australia’s chase as Umesh Yadav as Australia tail-enders Pat Cummins and Jhye Richardson made handy contributions with the bat.

Glenn Maxwell was the star of the evening for Australia as he was in imperious hitting form. The Australia batsman launched a counterattack after Australia lost opener Marcus Stoinis and captain Aaron Finch for 1 and 0, respectively inside the first two overs of their innings. India got off to the best possible start with twin strikes inside the first two overs but Maxwell made sure Australia never felt the pressure by keeping the scoreboard ticking.

Maxwell made his intentions clear when he hit Jasprit Bumrah to a boundary in the fifth ball of the innings. He then hit Umesh Yadav for three boundaries to put the pressure back on the Indian bowlers.

Maxwell hit 56 off 43 balls before holing out to long-off against Yuzvendra Chahal’s bowling in the 14th over of Australia’s 127-run chase. Maxwell’s fearless knock included two sixes and six boundaries. The Melbourne Stars captain had stitched an 85-run stand with opener D’Arcy Short.

However, Australia lost wickets in quick succession after the fall of Glenn Maxwell. While D’Arcy Short was run out after a terrible mix-up in the 16th over, Aston Turner was dismissed for naught while he tried to paddle sweep Krunal Pandya.

Debutant Mayank Markande, Umesh Yadav and Krunal Pandya slipped in three tidy overs after Maxwell’s wicket to shift the balance slightly in favour of India. Captain Virat Kohli showed flashes of brilliance as he set attacking fields to put more pressure on the visitors.

Earlier in the day, India managed huffed and puffed to a below-par total on a sluggish wicket in Visakhapatnam after KL Rahul hit a 36-ball 50. The India opener, who played his first international match after the Koffee With Karan controversy on Sunday, played a fluent innings and stitched a 55-run stand with captain Virat Kohli after which India lost wickets at regular intervals.

Middle-order batsman Dinesh Karthik and all-rounder Krunal Pandya failed to trouble the scorers much as Nathan Coulter-Nile broke the back of India’s batting unit. MS Dhoni though held his calm and hit a 37-ball 29. However, the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman struggled for timing as he consumed quite a lot of dot balls while batting with tail-ender Umesh Yadav. India will face a must-win situation in the two-match series when the two teams meet in Bengaluru in the final match of the series on February 27.

Scorecard

INDIA:
R Sharma c Zampa b Behrendorff 5
K Rahul c Finch b Coulter-Nile 50
V Kohli c Coulter-Nile b Zampa 24
R Pant run out 3
M Dhoni not out 29
D Karthik b Coulter-Nile 1
H Pandya c Maxwell b Coulter-Nile 1
U Yadav lbw b Cummins 2
Y Chaha not out 0
EXTRAS: (lb2, w9) 11
TOTAL: (7 wkts; 20 overs) 126
FOW: 1-14, 2-69, 3-80, 4-92, 5-94, 6-100, 7-109
BOWLING: J Behrendorff 3-0-16-1, J Richardson 4-0-31-0, N Coulter-Nile 4-0-26-3, A Zampa 3-0-22-1, P Cummins 4-0-19-1, D Short 2-0-10-0
AUSTRALIA:
D Short run out 37
M Stoinis run out 1
A Finch lbw b Bumrah 0
G Maxwell c Rahul b Chahal 56
P Handscomb c Dhoni b Bumrah 13
A Turner b Pandya 0
N Coulter-Nile b Bumrah 4
P Cummins not out 7
J Richardson not out 7
EXTRAS: (w2) 2
TOTAL: (7 wkts; 20 overs) 127
FOW: 1-5, 2-5, 3-89, 4-101, 5-102, 6-113, 7-113
BOWLING: J Bumrah 4-0-16-3, Y Chahal 4-0-28-1, U Yadav 4-0-35-0, H Pandya 4-0-17-1, M Markande 4-0-31-0
TOSS: Australia
UMPIRES: Chettithody Shamshuddin, Nitin Menon
TV UMPIRE: Anil Chaudhary
MATCH REFEREE: Ranjan Madugalle