India's frailties with the ball were laid bare as Australia gunned down a formidable 209-run target rather comfortably for a four-wicket win in the first T20I here on Tuesday.
KL Rahul (55 off 35 balls) and Hardik Pandya (71 not out off 30) helped India post a daunting 208 for six after Australia put the hosts in to bat.
Dominant Australia
Australia were dominant in the run chase, romping home in 19.2 overs. Last year's World Cup hero Matthew Wade (45 not out off 21) and Cameron Green (61 off 30) played special knocks to make short work of a stiff target.
Hardik’s knock was the last good thing that happened on the night for the Men in Blue. After that, Australia dominated the proceedings and chased down the total with relative ease.
After the defeat, the Baroda all-rounder attended the post-match press conference and ended up exposing how clueless Team India was during the run chase.
During the presser, one of the reporters asked Pandya to reflect on the moment where the match slipped out of India’s grasp.
Hardik tried to be a bit cheeky and asked the scribe to share his opinion.
"Aap batao, mujhe nahi pata, humko pata hota toh wahi nahi rok dete na. (You tell me, I don't know. If we knew, we would have stopped them in the field)" Hardik told the reporter.
When the journalist suggested, it may be the 18th over bowled by Harshal Patel, where he leaked 22 runs, the allrounder said there was one can’t blame one incident for the defeat.
Looking forward
“Dekho sir, pinpoint nahi kar sakte. Unke time pe bhi ek over mein 24-25 run aye, usse kuch farak nahi padta. Bilateral series hai, aur do matches hai usmein koshish karenge kuch accha karne ki. (See sir, we can't pin-point on any over, they also conceded more than 20 runs in an over. There are still two matches in the series, so we will make a come back),” he added.
Hardik's remarks clearly highlighted the fact that Team India doesn't have a Plan B when things start to slip away from their hands in crunch situations.
