New Delhi: Indian bowlers set up a sensational nine-wicket victory in a rain-truncated encounter at Ranchi's JSCA Stadium on Saturday as the hosts outclassed Australia in the first of the three T20I matches. Bowling out six Aussie batsmen, Indian bowlers equalled the world record for most bowled dismissals in a T20I match.
Opting to bowl first under an overcast sky, pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar provided a dream start to the home team as he dismissed the Aussie stand-in skipper David Warner in the very first over of the innings. The outswinger ricocheted off a thick inside edge of Warner's bat to castle into the middle stump. Warner walked out scoring just eight runs.
Kuldeep Yadav, in the 10th over of Australia's innings, outfoxed opener Aaron Finch with a yorked up delivery that sneaked through the bat and leg to rattle the middle stump. In his very next over, he deceived Moises Henriques by changing both the length and pace as the ball turned in to hit the middle stump.
Hardik Pandya too put his name on the list by sending back Travis Head. Jasprit Bumrah once again proved lethal with his toe-crushing yorkers as he dismissed wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Paine and then Nathan Coulter-Nile to take the tally of most bowled dismissals to six.
India bowlers thus equalled the world record in T20Is. South Africa, Nepal, Bangladesh and the United Arab Emirates have previously achieved the feat in T20Is.
With a revised target of 48 runs from six overs for India, Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan showed their class to set up the nine-wicket win via D/L method.
