The Indian team kickstarted their 2018/19 tour of Australia with the first T20I against the hosts at Brisbane. The match proved to be an entertaining one as the hosts overcame a rain interruption to register a comprehensive win over the visitors.

Virat Kohli won the toss and chose to bowl first and got a good start with Khaleel Ahmed dismissing D’Arcy Short on his first ball in Australia, caught brilliantly by Kuldeep Yadav for 7 runs. Aaron Finch stayed at the crease for 24-ball 27 and was dismissed by Kuldeep and Chris Lynn scored 37 off 20 with 4 sixes and 1 four before Kuldeep had him caught and bowled.

Glenn Maxwell, however, came in and changed the complexion of the match, as he smoked Krunal Pandya for three sixes in an over and ended up making 46 off 24 balls with 4 sixes, while Marcus Stoinis scored 33* in 19 balls. A rain interruption in between curtailed the match to 17 overs-a-side and Australia managed 158/4.

Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of Indian bowlers with 2/24 in four overs, while Krunal Pandya went for 55 runs in his 4 overs.

India was given the DLS adjusted target of 174 in 17 overs and got off to a similar start as Australia, with Rohit Sharma falling for 7 to Behrendorff. Shikhar Dhawan got stuck into the Aussie bowling attack and smoked 76 off 42 runs with 10 fours and 2 sixes, before being caught on the boundary by Behrendorff by Stanlake.

KL Rahul struggled for 13 and Kohli made 4, as both fell to Adam Zampa, leaving too much work to be done by the lower order.

But Rishabh Pant (20) and Dinesh Karthik took India to the cusp of victory and though Pant fell in the way, Karthik carried on valiantly to make 30 off 13 balls.

Australia somehow managed to eke out a 4-run win despite a valiant effort from Indian batsmen and a lot of thanks to the DLS method.

BRIEF SCORES:
AUS 158/4 IN 17 overs (G MAXWELL 46; K YADAV 2/24) defeated IND 169/7 (S DHAWAN 76; A ZAMPA 2/22 ) by 4 runs via DLS method