CHENNAI: India continued their dominance in the shortest format against Australia with a 44-run win in Thiruvananthapuram in the second match on Sunday to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.
India were off to a flier with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad adding 77 runs for the opening wicket in 5.5 overs. Jaiswal smashed Sean Abbott for 24 runs in his first over and cruised to his second T20I half-ton. The Mumbai opener hit three back-to-back boundaries off Nathan Ellis to reach his first T20I fifty on home soil but lost his wicket immediately after it. Ishan Kishan and Gaikwad endured the trick play and added 87 runs for the second wicket. Both batters raised their bats for half-centuries but fell immediately after reaching the milestone.
Captain Suryakumar Yadav made the most of his short stay to score 19 off 10 balls including two sixes. Meanwhile, it took Rinku Singh only nine deliveries to put 31 runs on the board including 24 runs off Abbott’s penultimate over. Australia conceded 111 runs in the last seven overs as India put 235 runs on the board after losing four wickets.
In the chase, Australia lost three early wickets, including that of Josh Inglis, who hit a century in the previous match, and Glenn Maxwell. They never recovered from the early blows and continued to lose wickets. Marcus Stoinis and Tim David added 81 runs for the fifth wicket but it was not enough. For India Prasidh Krishna and Ravi Bishnoi took three wickets each.
Brief scores: India 235/4 in 20 overs (Gaikwad 58, Jaiswal 53, Kishan 52; Ellis 3/45) bt Australia 191/9 in 20 overs (Bishnoi 3/32, Krishna 3/41).
