ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, India vs Australia, Live: Starc gets rid of Sharma, Yadav (2024)

India 194/4 (18.2 overs): After 21 balls without a boundary, India finally get one. Cummins banged one in short and Pandya slapped it over the cover fielder for a four. He begins Stoinis’ final over with two superb sixes. Smashes a wide delivery over cover and ends up performing a pirouette! Stonis bowls the second delivery full and Pandya clears his front foot before dispatching the ball over long off.

India 171/4 (17 overs): Hardik Pandya is dropped! After Hazlewood ended his spell with a four-run over, Zampa comes in and almost gets rid of both Pandya and Dube. Pandya top edges a length delivery only for Marsh to drop a sitter at backward point. In the next ball, Dube slices a short ball which falls just short of a diving Stoinis at backward point. A very good over from Zampa to end his spell. The last two overs yielded just nine runs.

India 159/4 (14.3 overs): Starc strikes again! Yadav began the over by piercing the gap between short third and backward point for a four. Starc responds with a wide slower delivery. Yadav had moved to the on side and so has to reach for the ball. He can only nick it behind and Wade completes the catch.

India 155/3 (14 overs): Shivam Dube and Suryakumar Yadav keep the carnage going! Dube wallops Zampa over cow corner for a huge six as the pair score 11 runs in the over. In the next over, Dube slaps a wide yorker off Stonis down the ground before Yadav lofts him over long on for a six. 13 runs off the Stoinis over.

India 127/3 (11.2 overs): Yorked ‘em! Starc gets his revenge over Rohit and denies the Indian captain a deserved century. Came around the wicket and nailed the yorker perfectly. Rohit departs for 92 runs off 41 balls.

India 127/2 (11 overs): Cummins resumes the innings after drinks. Starts off by giving away just three runs off his first four balls. Suryakumar Yadav takes that personally and shows why he is Mr 360 version 2.0. Swivels and pulls a short ball towards the fine leg boundary and ends the over with a delightful six over cover.

India 114/2 (10 overs): Suryakumar Yadav brings up the 100 for India with a nice drive towards the backward point boundary. Harsha Bhogle on the commentary informs us that India have brought up the quickest team hundred in men’s T20 World Cup in 8.4 overs. Rohit continues his assault at the other end hitting Stoinis for two boundaries at fine leg.

India 93/2 (8 overs): A brutal welcome to Marcus Stonis by Rohit Sharma but the Australian strikes! Rohit begins the over by coming down the track and pulling the ball towards the deep midwicket boundary. Stoinis pulls the length short but Rohit goes back in the crease and pulls it over square leg for a six. Then follows it up coming down once again and smoking a six over cover. Stoinis ends the over on a high. Pant looks to play the ball on the on side but the ball takes the leading edge and flies high in the sky. Hazlewood takes a simple catch at long on.

India 76/1 (7 overs): Pant now gets going! Smashes the first four off Hazlewood’s bowling today with a nice pull down the ground. He then welcomes Adam Zampa to the match by coming down the track to the wrist spinner and hitting him over the long on boundary. Rohit then sends the ball sailing over cow corner! A big over for India with 15 runs coming off it.

India 52/1 (5 overs): The break has not taken the fury out of Rohit Sharma’s attack! A delightful drive through backward point and beats the man on the rope! A ball later, he dances down the track and pulls hard. The ball comes off the edge and flies over the slip cordon and races away to the boundary. Rohit brings up his half century with a quick single. This has been a superb knock from the Indian skipper! 50 off just 20 balls!

India 43/1 (4.1 overs): An excellent over from Hazlewood following that expensive Starc over. Just the two runs off it. Marsh takes off Starc and introduces Pat Cummins in the attack. Rohit goes down on one knee and leathers the ball over midwicket and onto the roof of the net! And we have rain! Rohit sprints off the pitch as the ground staff sprint on it with their covers. Hopefully this is a short interruption. And guess what? It is a quick one! The sun has come out as quickly and it looks like the covers will be taken off as quickly as they had been put on.

India 35/1 (3 overs): Rohit goes Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Two absolutely brutal lofted cover drives for back-to-back sixes. He follows it up with a slightly miscued pull which clears the fielder at mid on for a four. Starc then bowls it right in the slot and Rohit launches it into orbit! Huge six over deep midwicket! Starc stems the bleeding with a good wide yorker. Tries it once again but bowls it past the wide line. Ends the over with a loose full toss and Rohit slices it over the the slip cordon for his fourth six of the over! 29 off that Starc over!

India 6/1 (1.4 overs): Kohli out for a duck! Virat Kohli’s poor run at the tournament continues as he is caught off guard by a Josh Hazlewood short delivery. He pulls but his shot is against the breeze. Tim David sprints backwards towards the deep midwicket boundary before completing a good running catch.

India 5/0 (1 over): A huge appeal from behind the wicket on the second ball! Starc bowled it right on the wide line and Rohit went fishing with Glenn Maxwell appealing after completing the catch. There was a sound Maxwell went up as did Matthew Wade. Starc wasn’t interested. The umpires go upstairs and the replays show that the ball bounced after coming off the edge. Sharma hits the first boundary by flicking the ball through the gap at midwicket. Five runs off the first over.

India 0/0 (0 over): Rohit will face the first ball with Virat at the other end. A headband sporting Starc has the new ball in his hand. And away we go!

India vs Australia: The match referee Jeff Crowe leads out umpires Richard Illingworth and Richard Kettleborough followed by the Indian and Australian teams. Not a lot of crowd today considering how massive this match but understandable given that it is Monday morning in St Lucia. We’ll have the national anthems first before Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli get the Indian innings underway.

Screenshots via Disney+Hotstar