IND vs AUS T20 World Cup: India locked horns against Australia in the T20 World Cup match 2024 at the Beausejour Stadium in St. Lucia on June 24. Indian captain Rohit Sharma led the team to the semi finals with his blistering 92.
Australia won the toss and decided to bowl first. During India's innings, Opener and Skipper Rohit Sharma showed an impressive performance as he scored 92 off 41 balls powered by 7 fours and 8 sixes, which led the team make a total of 205 with the loss of 5 wickets in 20 overs. made after he lost the toss. Speaking of other players, Virat Kohli was out for his second duck in the tournament. Rishabh Pant scored 15 off 14 balls, Suryakumar Yadav scored 31 off 16 balls, Shivam Dube scored 28 off 22 balls. Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja remained unbeaten at 27 and 9 respectively.
Though India won yesterday's match, Australia did put up a tough fight. Travis Head scored an impressive 76 off 43 balls, hitting 9 fours and 4 sixes. David Warner was dismissed for 6, Mitchell Marsh contributed 37 off 28 balls, and Glenn Maxwell managed 20 off 12 balls. Indian bowlers effectively restricted Australia to 181 for 7.
Arshdeep Singh claimed 3 wickets, Jasprit Bumrah dismissed the crucial Travis Head, while Kuldeep Yadav took 2 wickets and Axar Patel added 1 to his tally.
After the match, the Indian Skipper said, “I thought right from over number one, there was a strong breeze blowing across. They (Australia) changed their plan, bowling against the breeze, so I realised I had to open up the off side as well. You've got to factor in the breeze and understand that the bowlers are smart as well and open up all sides of the field. When you keep an open mind and not just think of one shot, you can access all areas of the field.”
"200 is obviously a good score, but when you're playing on grounds like this where wind is a factor, anything is possible, but I thought we used the conditions very well. It was very pleasing to see how we were getting through those overs and getting the wickets at the same time," he added.
The skipper further added that he would like India to continue playing the same way in the knockouts in the manner they have played so far. “We don't want to do anything different (in the knockouts). We want to play the same way, understand what the individuals need to do in a given situation, and play freely. So far we've been doing that consistently, and semifinals, we have to try and do the same thing. It'll be nice (to play England in the semifinal). Nothing changes for us, we want to focus on what we can do as a team, and take the game on.”
“It's disappointing. Still technically a chance to go through, and today India got the better of us. I think over the course of 40 overs there's a lot of small margins, but honestly, India were the better team.”
"We've seen for 15 years what Rohit Sharma can do in that kind of mood, and he got off to an absolute flier. In a run chase like that, you're in it if you can keep it at tens (10 runs per over) for as long as possible, but India were too good for us."
(With inputs from PTI)
