India's Rohit levels Australia T20 series with unbeaten 46 / Photo: Indranil MUKHERJEE - AFP
India's Rohit levels Australia T20 series with unbeaten 46
Rohit Sharma's unbeaten 20-ball 46 helped India seal a six-wicket victory over visitors Australia in the second T20 which was cut to eight overs a-side Friday.
Home skipper Sharma won the toss and chose to field first in Nagpur and was helped by key cameos by Dinesh Karthik, unbeaten 2-ball 10, and Virat Kohli (11) as India hit 92-4 with four balls remaining in reply to Austalia's 90-5.
Australian leg-spinner Adam Zampa took 3-16 in his impressive two over spell when most of the other bowlers looked ineffective against in-form Sharma.
Pacer Pat Cummins was the only other wicket-taker for the visitors and finished with 1-23.
Matthew Wade's unbeaten 20-ball 43 propelled Australia to a formidable 90-5 after a wet outfield in the rain-hit city delayed the start and shortened the game.
It was Wade's second consecutive impressive innings in the series.
On Thursday, the Australian wicketkeeper hit 21-ball 45 in the first match to help the visitors chase down a mammoth 209-run victory target.
Australian captain Aaron Finch on Friday hit a 15-ball 31 before an impressive spell by left-arm spinner Axar Patel put a brake on Australia's scoring.
Patel finished with 2-13 and was the most impressive bowler for India.
Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah who returned to the team on Friday took one wicket for 23 runs.
The three-match series, a warm-up for the T20 World Cup in Australia next month, concludes Sunday in Hyderabad.
M.Bilal--CdE
