Australia hammer India in front of 82,438 people to take a handy 1-0 lead in this 5-match series. It was set up by Josh Hazlewood and his seam-bowling partners after Mitchell Marsh won the toss for the 19th time in T20Is and decided to bowl first for the same number of times. Abhishek Sharma played a lone hand and got some support from Harshit Rana. 126 was never going to be enough, and Marsh and Head set the stage on fire before Indian spinners and Bumrah made Australia sweat a bit.
The caravan now moves to Tasmania as the third T20I takes place in Hobart on Sunday.
For now, this is AkshayaKrishna Polya, signing off on behalf of my co-commentator, Pritam Dey, scorer Manish Bishnoi, and helping buddy, Paras Yadav, alongside statistician Aman. We will meet again. Until then, it is cheers!
Most Consecutive Wins for an Indian Captain in T20Is:
14 - Rohit Sharma (2019-22)
11 - Rohit Sharma (2024)
9 - Virat Kohli (2019-20)
9 - Suryakumar Yadav (2025) - ENDED TONIGHT*
8 - Suryakumar Yadav (2023-24)
NUMBERS GAME: This is Australia's only 2nd win against India at MCG in T20Is. The last time they won a T20I at MCG against the Men in Blue was way back in 2008.
This win has also ended Shivam Dube and Jasprit Bumrah's winning streaks in the shortest format for India. The last time India lost a T20I with Dube in the playing XI was against West Indies in Thiruvananthapuram in 2019. At the same time, the last time India lost a T20I with Bumrah in the XI was against New Zealand in Dubai in 2021.
Mitchell Marsh (Australia Captain): "He is a leader in our pace attack. It was a good toss to win. There was a little bit of moisture underneath it and Hoff is a great bowler when the surface offers something for him. It was a really good effort from the bowling unit. We kept going for wickets and managed to restrict them to a low total.
I think since the last World Cup we tried to build a squad of 25 members. If required, we can call anyone from there for the World Cup and make him really feel a part of the team. We have got some great talent coming through Australian cricket.
(On becoming the 4th Aussie to score 2000 T20I runs) Well, I was a bit tensed being 10 off 10 at one stage. I got going at the end. Heady (Travis Head) took all the pressure off as he always does. So, it was nice to chase that down. Looking forward to the remaining three games of the series."
Suryakumar Yadav (India Captain): "(On Hazlewood) Absolutely. I mean, the way he bowled in the powerplay was just sensational. If you are 4 down in the powerplay, it's very hard to recover from that. Credit goes to him.
(On Abhishek Sharma) I mean, he is being doing his job for a long time now. It's good that he is not changing his natural game. I hope he sticks to it as it's working really well for him.
(On the takeaways from this game) I think we need to bat really well like we did in the first game. If we bat first then we need to put nice runs on the board and then come out and defend."
Josh Hazlewood (Player of the Match): "Yeah, I feel, the ball is coming on nicely from my hand in any format I am turning up for my country. So, not much needed to change for me in that surface. We kept it simple and things worked out for all the quicks.
I made minor tweaks here and there. I am trying to play continuous cricket. I am playing majority of the games and also resting when needed. Looking forward to the summer.
Yeah absolutely. Playing a game here with 80,000 people in the stands and also against a high-quality opponent, I am very happy seeing what the others are doing from the other end. Even in the ODI games, Barts (Bartlett) and Nathan (Ellis) are doing fine jobs. Now, it's time to look forward for the Summer.
Yeah, now I head back home tomorrow. I have a couple of Shield games to play and after that, we have the first Test in Perth. It's important to get used to that red ball and bowling long spells and also being out there in the field for a long time. So, yeah, looking forward to the Perth Test."
Player of the Match: Josh Hazlewood
Fun Fact:The streak finally breaks for both Dube and Bumrah with this loss. Dube last tasted defeat in T20Is back in December 2019 vs West Indies in Thiruvananthapuram, while Bumrahβs previous loss came against New Zealand in Dubai in October 2021.
Biggest Defeat for India in T20Is (by balls remaining):