Jadeja, Chahal help India edge Australia

By AFP

December 05, 2020

CANBERRA: Concussion substitute Yuzvendra Chahal plucked three vital wickets to help India win their first T20 International of the three-match series against Australia at Manuka Oval here on Friday.

Chahal had been chosen - controversially - to replace Ravindra Jadeja, who had got injured while batting. Jadeja’s exit from the contest - he suffered a hamstring injury first and was then hit on the helmet in the last over of India’s innings - allowed India to call upon a wrist-spinner in Chahal. Jadeja’s 41 off 23 balls had allowed India to post 161 for seven.

Australia began the chase well, but Chahal took the steam out of it with three key wickets. The hosts eventually remained 11 short of India’s total.

The Australians gradually lost grip of a contest that had appeared more or less in their keeping when India were restricted to 114 for 6 with 19 balls of their innings remaining after Aaron Finch sent them in to bat. A target of 162 should still have been well within the grasp of Finch’s team, but their innings sank steadily into the mire thanks to Chahal, T Natarajan’s zippy left-armers, and Virat Kohli’s growing command of the battlefield.

Mitchell Starc found a hint of swing into KL Rahul during the opening over of the match, and found the lines and lengths that made him hard to dispatch to the boundary on a good pitch. In his second over, Starc struck, and Shikhar Dhawan was the victim.

Seeing a delivery of fullish length, Dhawan leant forward to drive, but, to his horror, saw the ball curl away late to flick off stump.

Moises Henriques’ spell of 3 for 22 ensured Rahul could not take control of the latter part of the innings after Mitchell Swepson had pouched the key wicket of Kohli, and also ensured that Hardik Pandya could not exert the kind of late-innings influence he had in the third ODI.

When Jadeja was struck on the helmet by Starc in the final over of an innings he played a key role in pushing to competitive territory, having already been restricted by an apparent hamstring strain while batting, his case raised all sorts of questions. Not checked for concussion on the field, Jadeja was apparently assessed between innings and found to be suffering from a possible concussion.

Once the decision for a concussion substitute was made, the questions evolved into those around the right replacement. In what was a very public debate between Langer and match referee - his first batting partner in a Test match - David Boon, it was very clear the hosts were miffed by both the concussion situation and the fact that Chahal was chosen as Jadeja’s replacement.

“Like for like” is a very subjective concept. It only became more so when Chahal dismissed Finch and Smith, to give India a chance of upsetting the Australian chase.

Score Board

Australia won toss

India

KL Rahul c Abbott b Henriques 51

S. Dhawan b Starc 1

*V. Kohli c and b Swepson 9

S. Samson c Swepson b Henriques 23

M. Pandey c Hazlewood b Zampa 2

H. Pandya c Smith b Henriques 16

R. Jadeja not out 44

W. Sundar c Abbott b Starc 7

D. Chahar not out 0