Rohit Sharma on Friday played a blistering knock to guide India to a 6-wicket win against Australia in the T20 International series, played in Gujarat.
The match was reduced to an 8-over event. Batting first, Australia made 91 by losing five wickets.
However, India achieved the target in 7.2 overs by losing just four wickets. India needed 9 runs from the last over but Dinesh Karthik, who replaced Hardik Pandya, hit a six and a four to secure a comfortable win for his side.
India had lost the first match of the series.
Sharma remained unbeaten at 46 from 20 balls, while Dinesh Karthik was not out at 10 from two balls.
Sharma, who was declared Player Of The Match, said after the match, “I was quite surprised as well actually. Didn’t expect to hit it like that, glad it came off. For the last few months I have been playing like that. The bowlers had something to bowl to and we bowled well. Glad DK could finish well. Been a while since he had some time in the middle. There was this thought if we should get Rishabh in but I thought Sams is going to bowl off-cutters, so I thought let DK come in and he is playing that role anyway for us.”
His Australian counterpart, Aaron Finch, said, “Rohit played brilliantly and two overs of Axar made the difference. Wade is a calm customer at the back end and he has grown into that finisher’s role. Zampa was good too. We just got out-executed a little bit towards the back end. But we got close.”
The Indian team had come under scathing criticism from fans after they lost the first match of the series. Many fans had raised questions on the notable exclusions of some players such as Mohammed Shami and Sanju Samson.