India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: Really important half century for Abhishek, who is playing a completely different match to everyone else at the moment. Harshit Rana picking up boundaries here and there too to keep the score moving.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: Some player, Abhishek. He knows the only chance India have is if he uses this platform to go on and get a big one. He’s barely faced the bowling and that will need to change.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: So the interesting decision to hold back Shivam Dube, likely targeting Matt Kuhnemann. Harshit Rana sent in to pinch hit. Abhishek happy to tick along.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: What a spell. He’s done for this tour with that, but he has been truly magical. Fast, accurate, bounce and movement. In this small sample size, some of the best fast bowling you are ever likely to see.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: He has only seen 11 of the 36 balls in this powerplay, and has scored 29 of the 40 runs. 4 wickets. Australia’s powerplay, but shouldn’t be with the form Abhishek is in.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: Not the shot for the circumstance! It’s a shot Tilak plays well, but there is too much bounce in this pitch. He goes for a paddle type shot, but it’s a big top edge, and Inglis can settle underneath it to take a simple catch.
Wow, India have lost their way. 33/4 after 5, Axar Patel next in.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: Unplayable! Just unplayable! The previous ball is a dropped catch as Inglis can’t hang on to one gloved down the leg-side, but no mistake on the next ball! It’s a delivery that is Hazlewood’s bread and butter, angled in and seaming away, and it’s too good for Surya to do much with except edge behind!
Wow, what a start. 32/3 now, Abhishek looking sensational but has only faced one third of the balls so far.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: Wickets falling at the other end, but Abhishek doesn’t care, goes after the bowling. Suddenly onto 24* off just 9 deliveries.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: Samson pushed up the order but it doesn’t work! Beaten on the inside edge by a straight one. Seams back in just a touch from Ellis, but not as much bounce as earlier, and it is three reds on the DRS.
23/2 now, India in a spot of bother. Captain Surya comes in.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: Gill tries to attack Hazlewood and perishes! Can’t get enough contact on a ball pitched up, and it floats to Marsh at mid-off. Gill was so uncomfortable against Hazlewood today, and couldn’t see him off.
Sanju Samson in next, something of a surprise.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: What a shot! Wow, the mechanics are such a joy to watch when it works for Abhishek. Dances down, all his weight going through the ball, and full face of the bat to take the ball with the angle over the off-side for six. Spectacular.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: Bartlett goes for a pair of yorkers early to Abhishek. First gets a couple whipped through leg, then a full toss sliced through covers. Next ball picks up two more. Outfield is playing a little slow, and is so big as is.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: Beautiful, beautiful pace bowling. Beats him with an in-seamer first ball, with an away swinger past his outside edge the next, and surprises him by going short on the third. Hits him hard on his helmet.
We return from the concussion check, and Gill finally gets bat and ball with a backward defence. Just one run off the first over.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: Nearly an electric start for Josh Hazlewood! Shubman Gill interestingly takes first ball, and he is beaten on the inside edge. Finger goes up and Australia think they have their man!
Review is taken… goes to hawkeye… and BOUNCING OVER! Luck goes Gill’s way early!
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: A sombre moment at the MCG. 17-year-old Ben Austin lost his life in a tragic cricketing accident in Melbourne, and head injuries will always have an impact on this country’s cricketing sphere in particular. Both teams share a moment of silence in his memory and to honour his family.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: Just the solitary change for Australia. Matt Short returns from treatment to his finger, and Josh Phillippe misses out.
AUS playing XI: Mitchell Marsh (c), Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Tim David, Matt Short, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Owen, Xavier Bartlett, Nathan Ellis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Josh Hazlewood
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: India remain unchanged, which means no space for Arshdeep Singh still.
IND playing XI: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana/Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: Mitchell Marsh just can’t stop winning these tosses! Suryakumar calls wrong, and the Aussies choose to bowl first. SKY okay with that, wanted to bat first.
Team news next.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: The MCG is typically an excelletn chasing track, and particularly with overcast conditions and the covers having been on, bowling first might be the call they go with today. Allow the bowlers the best of the conditions and back the batters to chase it down on a surface that will play hard and true throughout.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: Josh Hazlewood will play this match before heading off for Ashes preparation, and given the form he has been in, will want to ensure he leaves by giving Australia a win on the board. His role is fairly simple: bowl a couple of overs up front, and try to remove the dangerous Abhishek Sharma, who can single-handedly decide T20 games. It was a fasinating matchup in Canberra, even if it was Ellis who removed Abhishek, and will continue to be so today.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: After Shivam Dube was backed to be the second seamer in the Asia Cup final, he was backed as the third seamer in Canberra as well, with Gautam Gambhir going with his three trusty spin bowlers and trying to have his team play to its strengths rather than change their plan for the surface. Of course, the Indian team didn’t get to bowl, and that might mean the cards were played a little too early. Will the leadership be bullish about that decision and back it up?
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: This is a stadium that usually doesn’t see a lot of T20I action in truth, with the G being saved for Test matches and big ODIs, given its status as a multi-purpose stadium. But this is a suitable arena for a match of this stature, and it is telling that this is a game that is expected to be a sell-out – and the first time many of these Aussie players get to play in such an atmosphere, which is almost certain to be behind the visiting Indians as they are behind the hosts themselves.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: The disappointment of last year’s T20 World Cup prompted Australia to try and find an identity as a T20 team built around power-hitters in every spot in their lineup. Mitchell Marsh became captain and oversaw this switch, and the results have been immediate: against some very solid opposition, they have won 16 matches, and lost only twice since the end of last World Cup. Very quickly, the Aussies are out of the woods and into the conversation for next year’s marquee T20 tournament.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: Going back to the start of 2024, India have simply been nearly unbeatable in this format. A World Cup, an Asia Cup, series against South Africa and England, a changing of the guards as Kohli and Rohit stepped aside for a new generation, a new captain and a new coach. It hasn’t mattered. In a 39-match stretch going back 22 months, India have only lost 3 T20 international matches. The very definition of a winning machine.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I LIVE Updates: Rain and very little wiggle room to extend the match meant that even an hour-long shower ensured play couldn’t take place in the Australian capital beyond 9.4 overs. India had started off well with the bat despite Abhishek Sharma’s relatively quick wicket, with captain Suryakumar Yadav in particular looking in ominous form. However, 0-0 stayed 0-0.
India vs Australia 2nd T20I Live Updates: The men couldn’t play a full match on Wednesday, but the women more than made up for it with an all-time classic on Thursday. We are now at Thursday, and Indian fans recovering from the euphoria of last night’s Women’s World Cup semifinal will want the men in blue to keep that momentum going. Melbourne awaits for the second match of this T20I series. Stick with us!