‘We need to clean this up…’: Josh Inglis on how to stop Suryakumar Yadav

Josh Inglis celebrates after scoring a century during the first T20 cricket match between India and Australia.

After their disappointing defeat in the ODI World Cup final vs Australia, Team India bounced back to winning ways with a narrow two-wicket win vs Australia in their first T20I of the ongoing five-match series, in Visakhapatnam on Thursday. Chasing 209, the hosts cruised to 209/8 in 19.5 overs, courtesy of a match-winning unbeaten knock of 22 off 14 balls by Rinku Singh.

Meanwhile, Suryakumar Yadav, who is captaining the side in this series, smacked 80 runs off 42 balls. Opener Ishan Kishan also got a half-century, hammering 58 off 39 deliveries. Both were part of the World Cup squad, but played bit-part roles. For the ongoing series, senior players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Shami have been given a well-deserved rest and are not included in the squad.

Initially, a century from Josh Inglis (110) saw Australia post 208/3 in 20 overs. Meanwhile, Steve Smith (52) also got a half-century for the visitors. Speaking after the match, Inglis, who was part of Australia’s World Cup squad, hailed Suryakumar for his impact in the game and for putting huge pressure on his team’s bowlers.

“It is obviously not ideal to bowl so many wides but I think SKY is such a hard guy to bowl to and he was using the pace of the ball and moving around the crease so much and had put immense pressure on the bowlers. We need to clean this up in the next few games,” he said.

“It’s hard to say really where we went wrong. It’s a pretty wicket and SKY did what he regularly does. It was an exceptional innings today. And with Ishan (Kishan) top there, it was not easy for us. Maybe if we had got a wicket or two earlier, the pressure would have been on the Indians. Maybe, it would have been a different scenario then. But, on the whole, it was a good day of cricket,” he further added.

India will be looking to extend their lead in the ongoing series, when both sides take on each other in the second T20I, on Sunday.

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