Indian opener KL Rahul’s stunning 74 went in vain as India lost the second practice match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 at the WACA Ground in Perth. Chasing the target of 169, India kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and only managed to reach 132/8 in 20 overs.
Earlier in the match, India was asked to bowl first and Australia’s Hobson and D’Arcy Short’s fifties helped the side put in the highest total.
Hobson’s 64 and Short’s 52 stitched 110 runs for the second wicket before the Indian bowlers made a strong comeback. D’Arcy Short was run-out at 52 when Australia was 127/3 in 15 overs. Then Harshal Patel gave a breakthrough by dismissing Hobson.
Then R. Ashwin strikes twice in consecutive balls, dismissing Ashton Turner (2) and Fanning (0). In the same over itself, Bancroft was caught behind by Ashwin. Harshal Patel conceded 13 runs in the final over with a wicket and Australia piled 168/8.
Indian spinner R. Ashwin emerged as the standout bowler and scalped 3 wickets, all of which came in a single over. Harshal Patel claimed 2 wickets. Arshdeep Singh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked a wicket each.
KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant have walked out to start the 169-run chase. But it was a slow start. India lost Pant at the end of the powerplay. Deepak Hooda came for the strike but packed for 6 runs as India reached 33/2 in seven overs. India brings up 50 after 9 overs with Rahul and Pandya. But Pandya departs on 17 as India loses their third wicket.
Rahul completed his 50 as India edged past the 100-run mark. Only Rahul lasted till the end. Axar Patel only managed to score 2 runs. Dinesh Karthik was dismissed on 10 runs. Even though he was a part of the playing XI, skipper Rohit Sharma didn’t come out to bat. KL Rahul was dismissed by Andrew Tye in the 19th over as India reached 130/6.
A poor batting show by India as they only compiled 132 runs in 20 overs losing 8 wickets. India endured a 36-run defeat against West Australia in the second practice match. KL Rahul was just amazing in the match, but being at the edge of the big game, better performance is expected from other batters also.
The Men in Blue easily won the first match against West Australia by 13 runs even without the service of Virat Kohli and KL Rahul. Rishabh Pant opened the game along with Rohit Sharma. Suryakumar Yadav scored yet another half-century and asserted his dominance in Australian pitch conditions. Hardik Pandya was also excellent in the latter half, leading India to post a total of 158/6 in overs.
With warm-up matches remaining, team India wants to focus more on the batting level. Men in Blue will play their first and second warm-up matches against Australia and New Zealand on the 17th and 19th of October respectively.
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