T20 WC: "We know how lethal Shami can be, you saw what he did," says Rohit Sharma on pacer's last over heroic
Oct 17, 2022
Brisbane [Australia], October 17 : Praising the last over heroic of Mohammed Shami against Australia, India skipper Rohit Sharma said that he knew that the veteran pacer could play a lethal role in the match and wanted to give the star pacer the challenge to bowl last over.
A brilliant knock from KL Rahul and a three-wicket haul masterclass by Mohammed Shami helped India inflict a 6 runs defeat on Australia and bundled out the hosts for 180 in ICC Men's T20 World Cup warm-up match here at the Gabba in Brisbane on Monday.
Mohammed Shami defended 11 runs in the final over to hand India a 6-run victory over Australia in a warm-up match.
"Mohammed Shami was brilliant. We know how lethal he can be with the ball, and we all saw what happened. He is coming back after a long time, so we wanted to give him an over. Wanted to give him a challenge and let him bowl the final over, and you saw what he did," Rohit Sharma said in the post-match presentation.
Talking about India's batting performance against the hosts, Rohit praised star India batter Suryakumar Yadav who played a knock of 50 runs in 33 balls.
"I thought we batted well, towards the end we could have added 10-15 runs more. We always want a set batter to stay till the end, Suryakumar Yadav did it, overall a great batting effort with a nice bounce, was a pitch where you can trust your shots. You got to be smart with batting on grounds like these. You can't forget to push the balls into the gaps, scoring 8-9 runs in an over can be quite an effective plan," the India skipper added.
Citing that the men in blue can improve, Sharma added," It was a great practice game for us. There is room for improvement, but I want more consistency from the bowlers. You need to keep things simple and hit the deck hard. Overall a good game for us, they had a decent partnership and that put us under pressure."
Talking about the match, Mohammed Shami bagged a stunning three-wicket haul while veteran pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar scalped two wickets. For Australia, Aaron Finch played the captain's knock of 76 runs off 54 while Mitchell Marsh scored 35 off 18.
Chasing a target of 187, Australia got off to a good start as their openers Aaron Finch and Mitchell Marsh gathered 52 runs in five overs without losing a wicket. The 64 runs partnership stand for the first wicket was broken as Bhuvneshwar Kumar delivered a big blow to Australia dismissing Marsh for 35 off 18.
Marsh's wicket invited Steven Smith to the crease. In the 10th over of the innings, Finch and Smith hammered Harshal Patel for 15 runs.
In the 11th over Yuzvendra Chahal broke the Australian momentum as he dismissed Smith for 11 off 12. Australia's star all-rounder Glenn Maxwell then came out to bat.
Maxwell slammed Chahal for 15 runs while hammering back-to-back two fours in the 13th over of the match. Finch in lethal form destroyed Arshdeep Singh as he slammed the Indian bowler for 17 runs in the 14th over of the innings. Finch also brought up his fifty while hammering Indian bowlers all around the ground. At this point, none of the Indian bowlers was able to restrict Australian batters from smashing runs.
Experienced pacer Bhuvneshwar gave his team a big breakthrough as he dismissed Maxwell for 23 runs off 16 balls. In the last three overs, Australia needed 29 runs to win.
Harshal Patel was brought back into the attack and he proved his captain's decision right as he removed well-set batter Finch for 79 off 54 in the 19th over of the innings. The Australian captain's knock was decorated with seven fours and three sixes. At the same over Tim David was run out by Virat Kohli.
In the penultimate over, Australia needed 11 runs to win and Virat Kohli displayed his fine fielding as he took a one-handed catch of Pat Cummins. On the very next ball of the over Ashton Agar was run out without opening his tally. On the fifth delivery of the over Shami bowled out Josh Inglis for one run and bundled out the hosts for 180. Shami delivered a stunning last-over spell of 2, 2, W W W W, helping India to defeat Australia by 6 runs.
Earlier, KL Rahul smashed 57 off 33 while Suryakumar Yadav scored 50 off 33 to guide Men in Blue to a total of 186/7. For Australia Kane Richardson scalped stunning four wickets while Glenn Maxwell and Ashton Agar bagged one wicket each.
