In defense of the 125-run total in the second T20I of the five-match series, India needed some brilliance with the ball and in the field to compete against the hosts Australia at the Melbourne Cricket
Ground (MCG). With the openers Travis Head and Australian captain Mitchell Marsh going past 50-run stand at the top of the order in the fifth over, India found themselves in a tough spot until Varun Chakravarthy broke the partnership, courtesy a major help from the fielder.
The right-arm spinner tossed the ball up onto the stumps, which led to Travis Head backing away and going downtown but he wasn’t able to get it completely out of the middle. Tilak Varma, who was stationed at long-off area, had to run a fair few meters to grab hold of the ball but knowing that he would go over the boundary rope, he tossed it up before getting back in the field of play in the nick of time to complete a stunning catch.
Watch the video here:
Head walked back to the pavilion with 28 off just 15 to his name in an innings which had three fours and a six. After the fall of his wicket, Mitchell Marsh took charge of the Australian innings, collecting 20 runs in the Kuldeep Yadav over before getting dismissed on the last ball to him for his 46 off just 20 with two fours and four sixes to his name, which put his team quite close to achieving the target with a lot of overs to spare.
Below are the playing XIs of Australia and India for second T20I of the five-match series:
Australia: Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (c), Josh Inglis (wk), Tim David, Mitch Owen, Marcus Stoinis, Matt Short, Xavier Bartlett, Nathan Ellis, Matt Kuhnemann, Josh Hazlewood
India: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah
