Melbourne: The Adelaide glory is fresh but clinching the T20 series will not be easy for the Men in Blue here on Friday.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s boys, battered in the ODI series 4-1, bounced back in the T20 opener. But it is to be noted that Australia and Adelaide Oval do not share a healthy chemistry in the shortest format – the hosts had not won a single T20 encounter at the venue.
On the contrary, the Aussies are indomitable at Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) – they won six out of eight matches here, the last against South Africa in November 2014 but the last time they played India here (in 2012), they lost.
James Faulkner loves the MCG and he is the player to watch out for when Aaron Finch’s army start their proceedings.
The gifted all-rounder picked up three wickets (3/25) in the match against South Africa which tilted the contest in their favour. He removed Rilee Rossouw, David Miller and JP Duminy – the dangerous trio.
The Proteas could only manage 101 for the loss of seven wickets which the Aussies chased down comfortably.
Even in the World Cup final (though 50-over format), he maintained the consistency with three important scalps – Ross Taylor, Grant Elliott and Corey Anderson.
Nonetheless, the hosts should derive confidence from the 2012 clash.
The Aussies were all out for 131 in the first innings. The Indian bowling attack was led by Praveen Kumar – a terrific bowler at the death. In the end, Gautam Gambhir (56*), Virat Kohli (31) and Dhoni (21*) finished the business with two balls to spare.
However, the ratio is 1:1 as India were beaten once in 2008 at the same venue. Nathan Bracken rattled the then Indian batting and the hosts were wrapped up for 74.
