The second T20I of the five-match series at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) saw the Indian batting lineup collapse early, losing their first five wickets in just the eighth over. It didn’t deter Indian opener
Abhishek Sharma’s batting intent one bit and he managed to get to his sixth fifty in T20I cricket in just 23 balls, to help India get past the 100-run mark in a 15th over of the innings.
When India had lost half its side in just the eighth over of the innings, Sharma had already reached 33 off 15 with five fours and one six despite being starved of the strike at times. He shared a 56-run stand for the sixth wicket with pacer Harshit Rana, who was promoted up the order ahead of Shivam Dube, scoring 35 off 33 with three fours and one six, leaving India 105/6 in the 16th over at the fall of his wicket to Xavier Bartlett.
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Bartlett got the key wicket of Dube cheaply in the same over before Kuldeep Yadav didn’t trouble the scorers but Abhishek Sharma kept going further in his innings. He got a four and a six off Bartlett in the 18th over of the Indian innings before the attempt to farm the strike alongside the tail didn’t work as Nathan Ellis got him out lbw for 68 off 37 with eight fours and two sixes.
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
