Kuldeep Yadav starred with the ball for India as he finished with figures of 2-16

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah took two wickets apiece to lead India to a comfortable nine-wicket win over Australia via the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method in the first Twenty20 International in Ranchi.

Choosing to bowl first, India made their first breakthrough on the fifth ball of the match when stand-in captain David Warner was clean bowled by Bhuvneshwar Kumar for eight runs.

Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell made up for the early loss of Warner with a 47-run partnership before Maxwell was caught by Bumrah at short midwicket off the bowling of Yuzvendra Chahal for 17.

Finch went on to make 42 off 30 balls, which included four boundaries and a six, before he was cleaned up by Kuldeep.

Aaron Finch was Australia’s top-scorer with 42 runs

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

Kuldeep then took out Moises Henriques before Hardik Pandya joined the party by getting rid of Travis Head for nine runs.

Bumrah took over from that point as he sent Tim Paine and Nathan Coulter-Nile packing, while Dan Christian was run out by India skipper Virat Kohli for nine runs.

With Australia struggling at 118/8 after 18.4 overs, the rain came and play was suspended for a lengthy period of time.

Bumrah and Kuldeep picked up two wickets apiece, while Kumar, Chahal and Pandya chipped in with one wicket each.

Once the rain finally relented, India were set 48 runs to win from six overs, but they didn’t get off to the best of starts as opener Rohit Sharma had his stumps rattled by Coulter-Nile when he was on 11.

However, that was to be Australia’s last taste of success for the remainder of the game as Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan finished things off with an unbeaten 38-run stand.

Kohli ended up making 22 off 14 balls, which included three boundaries, while Dhawan also struck three boundaries during his 12-ball 15.

Coulter-Nile was the only bowler to take a wicket.

Warner was disappointed with his side’s performance, and said: “At the end of the day, it’s a poor result for us. We have to be better next game. We didn’t deserve to have that chance. Almost being bowled out for 120. But to get as close as we did, the bowlers did an okay job.

“Don’t have an answer for you. We had a good partnership up top with Finchy and myself, but then there was a collapse again in the middle order. We have to go back to the drawing board and figure that out.”

Kohli was delighted to have won, and said: “Especially after winning the toss and bowling first, that effort was required. We don’t really understand the Duckword Lewis method. After getting them down to 118, we thought it would only be 40 or something. 48 was tricky.

“It’s been a combined effort of the players, but also the management group who have given great ideas. Picking specialist players for formats, picking mystery bowlers, giving them confidence. They can give runs in one game, but they will always hit back. Bhuvi and Bumrah have been brilliant in limited-overs lately.

“You need to be able to execute yorkers and slower balls and you need skill. But you need to have a good head as well, make batsmen hit the wrong areas. Unfortunate for Dhawan to miss out on so many games, but he’s back and even this innings of 15 will give him confidence.”

Kuldeep was named Man of the Match, and said: “Getting my first Man of the Man in T20s. First couple of balls, I saw what he was doing, later on I set him up for the sweep shot. So I knew he wasn’t going to hit me over mid-off, so I planned that overpitched ball to bowl him. Always think about wickets, that’s all that matters for me and the team. Getting more confidence day by day, game by game.”