India vs Australia Live Score 3rd T20I: Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma look for momentum after KL Rahul falls early

No slips and Rohit reaps the benefits. He edges this ball and would have been a goner had there been a slip fielder. Instead, it runs off to the boundary. 

Adam Zampa is in, Kohli has got out to him so many times in his career, let alone this series. He wins this small battle though. Zampa overpitches outside off, Kohli stays right there and nails the cover-drive. Trademark Rohit pull and trademark Kohli cover drive have both been spotted so far. 

Hazelwood sends that into Rohit’s hitting arc and the Indian captain is not going to miss that. Shortish on off stump, Rohit pulls it from his hip and sends it over the boundary. 

Top edge and the ball goes miles up in the night sky. It is swirling around up there, Wade calls early, puts out his arms to tell his team mates to stay clear and runs backwards at some pace. He stops suddenly and then has to dive forward to his left complete the catch. That was as tricky a catch as it gets, absolute expertise on display there from Wade.   

Rahul c Wade b Sams 1 (4), India 5/1 in 1 over 

Daniel Sams bowls the first over for Australia. 187 for India to win the series, here we go!

Good finish from Harshal Patel in the end. Just one run and a wicket from the last five balls after that six off the first ball. This innings has been a thriller on its own. Cameron Green got Australia off to a flier-and-a-half, then the Indian bowlers led by Axar Patel pulled things back until the death overs. Once it got to that point, Tim David showed what he is made of and got Australia to 186. An off day from Jasprit Bumrah, who conceded 50 runs for no wickets but Axar and Harshal Patel towards the end did well for India. David and Sams put up a whopping 68 runs off just 34 balls, though, and that could turn out to be the difference between winning or losing this series. 

Tim David falls after an innings that may have turned the game back in Australia’s favour. Good bowling from Harshal, shifts his line wide of off and David’s attempted slog comes off the toe end of the bat. Rohit Sharma takes an easy catch. 

Tim David c Rohit b Harshal 54 (27), AUS 185/7 in 19.3 overs

A half century in just his third innings. What an innings this has been. Harshal misses the yorker and David smashes it back over the bowler’s head. 

39 runs off the last two overs! How things change in this format. 190 now well within reach for Australia and maybe even 200. 

None of this is going India’s way at the moment. Sams smashes Bumrah for a six off the first ball. A yorker next ball that Sams digs out for a single. Then what should have been just two runs becomes six when Pandya’s attempted direct hit misses and nobody is there to back him up. 

Well how many times has this happened to Bhuvi in the recent past. He waits for this one and hits it between midwicket and long-on. 

Full toss now and David whips it away over deep-midwicket for another. Bhuvi misses his length again and David cashes in. 

David comes down the pitch and sends a half volley from Bhuvi over the bowler’s head. That is what Australia need. 

Australia are 140/6. 190 seems to be out of question now for them but they can still get to a very good score with Tim David and Daniel Sams in the middle, Pat Cummins still to come. All of them can hit the ball a mile. 

Pandya cramps David for room but the batter plays it late and sends it racing to the boundary between third man and point. Some momentum back for Australia, they are 134/6 in 16 overs. 

Rohit Sharma smiles seeing that. Sams has made a botch of this attempted lap shot really but the ball still flies straight back over the wicketkeeper’s head after taking the top of the bat. 

Australia have gone from being well above par to par at this stage of the innings. The commentators continue saying that this is a great pitch and things are only going to get more difficult for the bowlers later in the match with whatever amount of dew that is about to set in. 

This is Axar’s last over and he may just have changed the game completely. Australia’s quick start seems to have been completely undone now. Matthew Wade checks an attempted punch shot and ends up spooning it straight back to the bowler. All eyes on Tim David now. 

Wade c & b Axar 1 (3), Australia 117/6 in 13.5 overs 

A wicket exactly when India needed. Tries to make room and loft it over cover, ends up lobbing it to Rohit at backward point. 

Inglis c Rohit b Axar 24 (22), Australia 115/5 in 13.1 overs

Harshal had stopped a drive from David with his right hand in his follow-through. That was powerfully hit and Harshal needs some attention on that hand. Nothing serious, though, and he comes back to bowl the fifth. He bowled a wide and a no ball consecutively and so this over is taking a while to get over. 

Harshal pitches it up outside off and David sends it soaring over the bowler’s head. That is almost as big as the one that Green hit earlier in this innings. 

Chahal takes it away from Inglis and yet the batter reaches it and hits it over extra cover. That’s three figures up for Australia. 

Just one boundary in the last two overs. And yet, Australia still have a score that can be considered good at this stage of the innings. They run the danger of stalling though and Rohit has brought on Chahal and Bumrah to put further breaks on this innings. 

India have pulled things back here. Smith gives Chahal the charge, misses it completely and DK makes no mistake with the straightforward stumping.  

Smith st Karthik b Chahal 9 (10), Australia 84/4 in 9.2 overs

Well the replay of that entire run out incident has been played in the stadium’s big screen a couple of times, prompting “DK! DK!” chants to go up around the stadium. Rohit Sharma had given DK a kiss after the decision was shown on the big screen. In one series, Rohit has strangled DK, hugged DK and kissed DK in each of the three matches. 

Well this match has almost everything you can expect from a T20I game already and we are still three overs away from the first 10 overs being completed. Dinesh Karthik is very, very lucky here. A brilliant throw from Axar Patel at short fine leg and in real time, it looked like that was a direct hit and Maxwell was well out. The decision goes upstairs and replays show that DK may have whipped off the bails before the ball hit. But another angle shows that while Karthik did disturb one bail, the other was intact until the ball actually hit the stumps. The Indians on the field and in the stands waited with bated breath and the third umpire decided that since the bails truly came off only after the ball hit it and DK had no contact with the ball at all. Maxwell is shaking his head and screaming into his hands while covering his face as he walks off. It was the correct decision, though, he will realise that once he looks at the replay after having a cold shower. 

Maxwell run out (Axar) 6 (11), Australia 75/3 in 7.4 overs

That should have been taken, Steve Smith has got a lifeline here. Short and wide from Hardik, the ball flies to Axar Patel at backward point and the ball just bursts out of his hands. 

Hardik Pandya bowls the first over after powerplay and Smith leans into a pitched up deliver for a lovely off drive. His first boundary of the innings. 

And breath. Pure carnage, that is how you can describe that powerplay. It was all Green and Glenn Maxwell bookended all that with a four off Axar off the last ball of the sixth. 

He lived by the sword and now he dies by it. Bhuvneshwar kept trying to take it away from Green and the batter finally succumbs to the tactic. Green takes a swing at the wide delivery and holes out to Rahul inside the 30-yard circle. A brilliant knock comes to an end. 

Green c Rahul b Bhuvneshwar 52 (21), Australia 62/2 in 5 overs 

Hyderabad applauds what has been a truly extraordinary innings. He has already done his job and more, a half century with more than an over the spare in the powerplay!

Well the fielders don’t exist for Green today. He has raced to 49 off just 18 balls already! Green had screamed at Finch to cross over when he was getting caught and then he proceeds to hit all of the remaining balls in that over for fours. He has taken on Bumrah and Axar and so far, he has come out on top like it is nothing. 

Finch goes aerial but doesn’t connect well at all. He holes out to mid-on. It is Finch, not Green, but India will take it. 

Finch c Pandya b AR Patel 7 (6), Australia 44/1 in 3.3 overs 

Green does not care that it is Bumrah who is bowling to him. Sits back and pulls it over the midwicket boundary. Australia are 40/0 in 3 overs, Green on 37 off 15!

That ball has said hello to the clouds and then fallen back to the stadium, where it nestles in the second tier. Green smashes Bumrah back over his head. He is really liking this T20I format, it is only his this match!

It is Jasprit Bumrah bowling the third but it doesn’t matter to Green. Full length and Green smacks that between midwicket and mid-on along the ground. 

Green managed to connect one more for his third boundary of this innings and then takes another swipe at the last ball, which he misses. Luck has been smiling at him from ear to ear today. 

Axar erres in his length, goes a bit short and Green makes room and punches it through covers. He has made 16 in just 7 balls. 

Ferocious and lucky, that is what Cameron Green was in that first over. He swung at every single ball that came his way, the last three balls were all swung at, none of them connected. Axar Patel bowls the second. 

Oh Green! The third ball of the over kicks up off a length, big man Green cracks it between extra cover and point. What a start for Australia!

Green whips the second ball of the first over for a six over square leg. He had taken an almighty swing at the first ball as well and that landed in no-man’s land. Safe to say that Cameron Green is looking to attack early on. 

Aaron Finch and Cameron Green open for Australia, it is Green who faces the first ball. Probably because of the problems Finch has had against Bhuvneshwar Kumar, says Sunil Gavaskar in the commentary box. Bhuvi it is who bowls the first over.

Murali Kartik and Ajit Agarkar say in their pitch report that this is another good batting surface. A “fairly large surface with even sized boundaries on both sides of the square”. Importantly, dew won’t be a factor.

“We would have fielded as well, it looks like a good wicket though. We always want to perform against the best sides, in that sense this is a very important game for us. The crowds in India have always been amazing, regardless of where they play. One change for us. Josh Inglis comes in place of Sean Abbott.”

“We will bowl first. It’s good to be back in Hyderabad and play in front of this crowd. We look to keep winning games, it’s important to maintain your momentum in this format of the game, so it was a good win for us (in Nagpur). Australia have always been challenging, they bring in a different kind of challenge. We need to keep doing the basics right if we have to get success. The last win helped us gain confidence and I hope everyone steps up today. One change for us – Bhuvi is back, Rishabh misses out, we needed only 4 bowlers in the last game, so he (Bhuvneshwar) unfortunately missed out.”

Aaron Finch(c), Cameron Green, Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Tim David, Josh Inglis, Matthew Wade(w), Daniel Sams, Pat Cummins, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood

KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma(c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik(w), Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal

India win the toss and choose to bowl. Rishabh Pant is out and Bhuvneshwar Kumar is back. 

‘The Virat Kohli Show’ was on. The West Indies batted first and scored a mammoth 207/5. Virat Kohli started his innings in a measured manner and then accelarated systematically. So brutal was his assault towards the end that India actually chased down the target with eight balls to spare. Kohli, was unbeaten on 94 off 50 balls.

Well there has been some rain in Hyderabad but there is nothing on the forecast throughout the match. It has to be noted though, that it wasn’t rain that was the problem during the 2nd T20I. While the valiant groundsmen ran from pillar to post in order to make the ground fit to play on, there was not a drop of rain that fell throughout the duration of the match. Let’s hope that the rains today does not cause a wet outfield in Hyderabad. 

Aaron Finch(c), Cameron Green, Glenn Maxwell, Tim David, Matthew Wade(w), Steven Smith, Daniel Sams, Sean Abbott, Pat Cummins, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood, Kane Richardson, Ashton Agar, Josh Inglis, Nathan Ellis

KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma(c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant(w), Axar Patel, Harshal Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Deepak Chahar, Deepak Hooda

India’s plans are somewhat obscure going into the T20 World Cup, which has been the case for a few years now, but one thing seems to be certain – Dinesh Karthik will not come on before the 16th over unless they have no choice but to bring him on. Those who have watched cricket for longer than the last 2 years would know that is a bit unfair, Karthik has proven himself playing in a number of positions accross formats but for now, he is seen as the ultimate finisher. He put his efficiency in that role on display once again in the 2nd T20I, smashing a six and a four off the only two balls he faced throughout the match. Both those shots came off the first two balls of the last over, with the second one sealing the win. He came, he saw, he conquered, repeat. That is what DK has been upto over the past year and a half. 

The senior Australian wicketkeeper seems to be in the form of his life. Wade scored an unbeaten 43 off 20 balls in the second T20I, which apart from Finch’s 31 off 15 is one of the biggest reasons why Australia got to a score of 90/5. Before that, he smashed an unbeaten 45 off 21 balls hitting a hat-trick of fours off Bhuvneshwar Kumar at the end of the 19th over to all but take Australia over the line. It was a boundary from Pat Cummins off the second ball of the next over that finally gave Australia a 1-0 lead in the series.

India’s death over bowling struggles came under even further scrutiny after Matthew Wade’s late assault helped Australia chase down 209 with four balls and four wickets to spare. Then, Nagpur was made to wait for its first international match in ages because of rains from the previous day that puddled up on the ground and made it dangerous to play on in an era of drainage systems and retractable pitches, none of which have made their way to most grounds in India despite the BCCI’s riches. However, if that means that every match will be reduced to 8-over-a-side sprints, fans wouldn’t mind outdated technology in their stadiums. Nagpur got to watch a thriller in which Wade was the protagonist once again for Australia but this time, it was India doing the chasing and they did so with four balls to spare as well. 

There has been a stampede before this match because of an utter lack of organisation in ticket sales. A blame game has followed since then, with the HCA and its president Mohammed Azharuddin saying that the association did no wrong. Now, the Central Crime Branch (CCB) has “arrested a 35-year-old man for alleged betting on” the match, PTI reported today. “Raghavendra was arrested from Deepanjali Nagar, Bengaluru by a team of CCB for allegedly betting on the decider India vs Australia T20 match to be played in Hyderabad. According to police, 3.06 lakhs of cash and a mobile phone were seized from the accused possession.” Not the kind of stories you want to see in the buildup to a crucial game in a well fought series. 

Here we are then, Australia won the first match, India won the second, bowlers took a hammering in both games. Wonder what awaits us in Hyderabad. Regardless of what happens in this match though, Australia have shown that they will make a good accounts of themselves as defending champions in the upcoming T20 World Cup at home later this year. In this series alone, they have shown that their batting lineup is among the most dangerous in the world. Their bowling, though, would be a bit of a cause of worry.