The M Chinnaswamy stadium has always been a brilliant ground to chase down totals and hence, both captains wanted to bowl first. Aaron Finch got his wish and even though KL Rahul was off like a train, Australia kept the scoring rate under wraps.
It was only when MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli decided to pull the trigger did the Indian team get going. It was vintage display by the two seasoned campaigners as India chugged along at a fair clip.
After his struggles in Visakhapatnam, MS Dhoni was back to his best and his intent and stroke-making were a refreshing sight. He was picking lengths pretty quickly and had no issues it depositing the bowlers into the stands.
Dhoni was at his magical best
Dhoni's 23-ball 40-run innings included three sixes and three fours. The wicketkeeper-batsman, who recorded his 50th T20I six in this match, had struck 349 sixes prior to this match. India struck 13 sixes in total, which is also the maximum number of sixes hit on the ground. Also, the former captain became the first Indian player to hit 350 sixes across all the International formats.
Indian captain Virat Kohli, who was absolutely brilliant on the day, scored a superb 72 and in the process became the batsman to have the joint-highest number of fours in T20Is. He equalled Tillekratne Dilshan who creamed 223 fours in 80 matches. Rohit Sharma is the only other Indian who has more than 200 fours in T20Is.
However, despite all his efforts, India were not able to pull off the game and this left him disappointed.
"Australia outplayed us in all departments and deserved to win. 190 is a good total on most grounds but if there is so much dew as there was tonight and when you have an innings like what Glenn Maxwell played, nothing much you can do," he said after the match.
Speaking about the Bengaluru surface, Kohli was happy that the true surface was back which assisted stroke making.
"The good thing was that the Bangalore wicket was back to normal and you could trust the lengths. I enjoyed myself but it didn't really matter as we lost the game," he further added.
