The first warm-up game of T20 World Cup 2022 saw India take on Hosts-Australia for a final drill before the marquee event. India were put into bat by Aussie-skipper Aaron Finch after winning the toss. Batting first, K.L. Rahul started the onslaught right from the start as he reached his half-century inside the powerplay. Suryakumar Yadav continued his purple-patch as he notched up his half-century as well to finish things off in style for the Indians. India finished with a massive total of 186 runs at the end of the first innings. The Aussie-innings had the game in balance till the very end, before Mohammad Shami, who didn’t bowl a single over in the match upto that point, was brought in by Rohit Sharma to bowl the 20th over. With 11 runs to defend, Shami roled up his sleeve and delivered the knockout punches in style with 2 killer yorkers to finish with 3-wickets for 4 runs in his lone over. Apart from Shami, Suryakumar and K.L. Rahul, the major highlight of the match was King Kohli’s acrobatic fielding. With a one-handed run out of Tim David and another one-handed sensational catch of Pat Cummins, Virat Kohli turned the game on its head with his high-class fielding.
India next face New Zealand in the 2nd Warm-up match, before the all-important India-Pakistan clash at MCG on Sunday.
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