India beat Aus in a thriller in 1st T20I after Surya special , Inglis ton in vain

 

No sooner than India and Australia come out of their gruelling ODI world cup campaign, they are subject to a 5 match T20I series in the view of the T20I World cup in 7 months . While India rested 14 of their world cup stars in the series , the Aussies have 7 ODI world cuppers in their T20I squad of which 4 played in the 1st T20I .

The Indian captain for this series Surya Kumar Yadav won the toss and fielded first . Australia opened with Steve Smith and Mathew Short . Short had a pretty short stay for 13 runs after which he was bowled by Bishnoi trying to hoick him. However Smith was batting fluently and hit some cracking backfoot shots past point and cover to get a fluent start.  Smith was joined by Inglis who started in fluent fashion hitting some cracking shots as Australia got a move on. 

After powerplay Inglis looked in dominant touch as he launched a massive onslaught on the inexperienced Indian bowling attack lacking their world cup stars . Fours and sixes started to fly all over the place as there was also the odd misfield and misses by the Indian fielders . 

Meanwhile Smith completed a fluent 50 but was soon run out for 52 off 40 balls  smacking 8 fours but the day belonged to Inglis who proved to be a nightmare to the Indian bowlers as he continued launching a fierce assault to reach a breathtaking century and finally was out for 110 off just 50 balls to equal the fastest T20I 100 by an Australian.  Inglis hit  11 fours and 8 sixes before he was caught by Jaiswal off Prasidh . Tim David applied the finish with a quick 19 not out as Australia reached 208/3 . For the Indian bowlers Mukesh Kumar bowled a brave last over to finish 29 runs off 4 overs . However both the other two quicks Arshdeep and Prasidh went for 41 & 50 runs respectively.  Indian fielding was scrappy in this innings . 

In reply India and Yashasvi Jaiswal started off with cracking shots but Ruturaj Gaikwad was run out without facing a ball due to Jaiswal's error . Jaiswal (21 off 8 balls) was out soon after  to Short but Surya Kumar Yadav stepped in and started to dominate soon after smashing the ball around  which also got Ishan Kishan into the groove as he started to hit some towering leg side sixes to offset his slow start . The two Mumbai Indians teammates had a rollicking partnership of 112 runs before Kishan (58 off 39 balls) was brilliantly caught by Short of Tanvir Sangha the leggie . Kishan hit 5 sixes . 

Surya meanwhile continued his onslaught but lost Tilak Verma (12) to Sangha but Rinku Singh stepped in and had a 40 run stand with the captain. Finally Surya after a blistering 80 off 42 balls with 9 fours and 4 sixes was dismissed to a good catch by Hardie off Behrendorff.  Axar Patel (2) played a poor shot instead of partnering longer with Rinku , but the KKR star took control of the game to hit 4 4s and despite two more run outs managed to win on the 2nd last ball hitting a straight 6 but a no ball by Abbott  did not include the six in Rinku's score . Rinku (22 not out off 14 balls)  showed brilliant composure once again to get the win soon after the game got tight with fall of quick wickets . 

For Australia, Behrendorff (1/25 in 4 overs ) was the most impressive bowler though Sangha got most wickets  (2) . 

Thus it was a great win for India by 2 wickets in a tense finish to a thrilling game at Vizag . While Surya got the player of the match , India took a 1-0 series lead but bowling and fielding looked less impressive. 

Australia also struggled with their bowling but fielded and batted superbly.  It is expected that Head , Maxwell and Zampa who all rested in this match post World cup fatigue , might take the field in 2nd T20I .