Rain played spoilsport in the India vs Australia 1st T20I at Canberra, as Suryakumar Yadav and Shubman Gill lit up the short innings with explosive shots before the match was abandoned due to persistent showers.
India captain Suryakumar Yadav was in his element though it was an inopportune moment when bad weather spoiled the first T 20 I match that India was about to play against Australia following a consistent shower.
India captain Suryakumar Yadav was in his own element as he had smashed a number of spectacular hits but inclement weather was a total dampener as the first T20 International game against Australia was canceled following a monotonous shower in Canberra on Wednesday.
Suryakumar, his deputy Shubman Gill (37 not out off 20 balls) was in fine form and demonstrated mature aggression before unleashing a flurry of attractive strokes on his way to his unbeaten 39 off 24 balls. The two contributed 62 runs off 35 balls to the second wicket and both were on course to make huge scores which was not to be.
Suryakumar whose strike-rate is below 110 and whose 2025 runs total was only 100, demonstrated the reasons why he was once the No. 1 ranked T20 batter globally by popping a Josh Hazlewood ball and smacking it into square leg fence. That was the shot of confidence that Suryakumar wanted in his armoury. It merely served to the credit of Manuka Oval strip, that it was well bounced and well carried, both of which, in the game of the Indian skipper, are factorial requisites.
He worked the strike a little way before he was 20, when he broke the shackles off the over of Nathan Ellis, the 10th of the innings, as he square-cut off, then off-driving and then swinging a tremendous pull over mid-wicket and a six or so before the heavens burst.
At the other end, Gill was a combination of caution and aggression with a few lustful blows, one of them was a slog-swept half-dozen across cow corner on the left-arm spinner Matt Kuhnemann, which succeeded in unleashing the gates wide open.
The 9.4 overs India had to suffer two breaks in and the following 4.4 overs became extremely fruitful as the visitors scored 54 runs in that period. The wet rain also implied that the ball was becoming wet and it could not be easily handled by Australian bowlers.
Abhishek Sharma (19 off 14 balls) who opened the deluge with three four-sided hits off Xavier Bartlett, was unable previously to judge the slower delivery that Ellis made behind the hand that the southpaw had failed to accelerate.
