After losing the tour opener by four runs, India are expected to do everything in their control to win the second Twenty20 International at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Friday to keep their hopes of winning the three-match series alive.
In the rain-hit first T20I, Virat Kohli & Co scored more runs in the 17-overs a side match but fell short of the revised target set on the Duckworth-Lewis method by 4 runs. That's strange, cricket has strange rules.
Another defeat and India's of seven-series winning run will come to an end. Ahead of the match, here are all the numbers you need to know, and also the weather forecast.
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- The Gabba win was Australia's sixth in 23 matches since the ball-tampering scandal in March.
- In the same number of matches (none against Australia), India have won 18 times.
- The defeat at The Gabba was India's first while chasing in nine matches.
- Dinesh Karthik has been the finisher, remaining unbeaten in all of those eight wins.
- Last time the two teams play a T20I series Down Under, in 2016, India blanked Australia 3-0.
- Realistically, Rohit Sharma can become the leading scorer in T20Is. He needs 58 more to go past Martin Guptill of New Zealand.
- Unrealistically, Virat Kohli can become the leading scorer. He is 165 behind Guptill's 2271.
- Shikhar Dhawan can improve his record most runs in a calendar year (648). He scored 76 in the first match to go past Kohli's 641 in 2016.
- Rohit can become only the third batsman to score 600+ score in a calendar year, after Kohli and Dhawan. He needs 330 more runs to reach the mark.
- With four sixes, Rohit can also become the third player after Chris Gayle (103) and Guptill (103) to hit 100 over boundaries in T20I.
- Jasprit Bumrah needs three wickets to become second Indian bowler with 50 or more T20I wickets after Ravichandran Ashwin (52).
- Andrew Tye, who took the wicket of Rishabh Pant at The Gabba, has the most wickets in a calendar year (30 in 2018 from 17 matches). And is likely to increase the count. Pakistan's Shadab Khan is second. (28 this year from 19 matches).
- In the previous 11 T20I matches, the average 1st innings score at MCG is 140, and 129 in the 2nd.
- But chasing sides have won the last ten matches played at MCG.
- Both the highest and lowest totals at the venue were scored by India, 184/3 vs Aus and 74/10 vs Aus respectively.
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Weather forecast:
Again, the weather might play a key part in the outcome of the match. According to the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), 3 to 10 mm rain is expected on Friday.
“There's a high chance (80%) of showers, most likely in the morning and afternoon," sbs.com.au quoted BoM as saying.
So, winning the toss becomes critical.
Squads:
India: Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Krunal Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed, Washington Sundar.
Australia: Aaron Finch (capt), Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Lynn, Ben McDermott, Glenn Maxwell, D’Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.
Viewers in India can wath the match live on Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI). SonyLiv will provide live streaming.
