Team India’s T20 World Cup 2022 preparations seem to be on the right track as they registered a thrilling four-run victory in the warm-up fixture against Australia at Gabba on Monday (October 17).
Asked to bat first, the Men in Blue rode on half-centuries from KL Rahul (57 off 33 balls) and Suryakumar Yadav (50 off 33 balls) to post 186/7 in their allotted 20 overs.
Kane Richardson was the stand-out bowler for the hosts, picking four wickets by conceding 30 runs in his four overs.
In reply, Australia’s top order did all the hard yards but their middle and lower order failed to step up to the plate. Thanks to skipper Aaron Finch’s 54-ball 76, however, the match went down to the wire.
The home team needed 16 runs from the last two overs with 6 wickets in hand. However, Harshal Patel and Mohammad Shami bowled brilliantly to bundle out Australia for 180 in 20 overs.
While Harshal conceded only 5 runs on the penultimate over and claimed the prized scalp of Finch, Shami gave away just 4 runs and took the wickets of Pat Cummins, Josh Inglis, and Richardson in the final over of Australia’s innings.
Indian fielders also did an outstanding job as they took some stunning catches and ran Tim David and Ashton Agar out in the last two overs.
For his heroics in the last over of Australia’s innings, Shami received rich praise from the cricket fraternity on Twitter.
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