An Impactful Chase

It was a third T20I between India and Australia at SCG. It was last match of the series. India had already won the series 2-0 and was looking for a whitewash. On the other end Australia was not in a mood of giving it away. Australia won the toss and opted to bat first. Batting first Australia put on 197 runs on the board with the help of Watson's unbeaten century. On any given pitch 180 is considered to be a winning total in T20s and Australia had scored 197 runs on that Sydney pitch. It is difficult to chase such a huge total on an Australian pitch but considering India's batting that total was chasable. The only thing to worry for India was that it was going to expose its middle order.

Rohit Sharma & Shikhar Dhawan came out to face Tait. Rohit Sharma was watchful in the first over but from the second over itself both batsmen were cruising towards the target. In the third over of the innings, Tait conceded 24 runs. It cleared India's intent. In the fourth over captain Watson brought himself into the attack and straight away he took the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan. Dhawan made 26 runs off 8 deliveries. Dhawan's cameo laid the foundation of the historic chase. Then Kohli joined Rohit Sharma in middle and both of them carried on from there. They carried on in the same fashion in which Shikhar Dhawan was playing. They maintained the run-rate of 12 runs per over in the powerplay.

After 6 overs India was 74/1. Then Cameron Boyce was brought into the attack. Where Australian pacers had no answer to Kohli and Sharma's counter attack, Boyce was not allowing them to free their arms. As a result run rate came down to 10 per over. India's 100 came up in the 10th over and by that time both the players were set to play the big innings. Rohit Sharma brought up his fifty in 12th over. In 13th over, Boyce was brought back into the attack and immediately he brought Australia back into the match by taking the wicket of Rohit Sharma. After the wicket of Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina's stumping was missed by the keeper in the same over. Boyce was bowling some awesome line and length.

Virat Kohli brought up his 50 in 15th over and immediately after his 50 Boyce knocked him over. Next man in was Yuvraj Singh. Yuvraj was making a comeback into the side. So he was bit nervous. On the other end Raina was also panicking a bit. India's middle order was exposed at the most critical stage of the match. Both the batsmen were having tough time in the middle. As a result India rechead to a stage where it needed 22 runs were required off last 2 overs. Watson came on to bowl second last over. He bowled very tight line and conceded only 5 runs in that over. Yuvraj Singh played four deliveries of that over and scored only four runs. People started criticising him on social media. People started talking about his knock against Sri Lanka in the final of #WT20.

17 runs were required off the final over. Tye was given the ball to bowl that last over. Tye bowled a length ball first up and Yuvraj dispatched it for a four. Second ball, Tye missed yorker length and Yuvraj dispatched it over deep midwicket for a six. Yuvraj was back. Suddenly, people who were trolling him started praising him. People had forgotten what kind of player he is! And he just showed them the glimpses of vitage Yuvraj. On the third ball, Raina took a bye. Then the equation was down to 6 runs off 3 balls. Raina took four runs of next two deliveries. Hence 2 runs were required off the last ball. Tye under pressure bowled a full toss and Raina dispatched it for a four. India won the match by seven wickets and whitewashed Aussies on their homeland.

Impact of the chase was such that India moved on to the first position from eighth in t20 rankings and experts declared India as one of the favorites to win the #WT20 in march.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

***Image Credits: Images used in this blogpost are taken from the official twitter accounts of ICC, BCCI & Star Sports
1. @ICC: https://twitter.com/ICC/status/693757901890949120
2. @StarSportsIndia: https://twitter.com/StarSportsIndia/status/693781048186925056
3. @BCCI: https://twitter.com/BCCI/status/693769156521545728