Astralia batsman Peter Handscomb said his side drew a lot of confidence from beating India at home in the tour-opener in Visakhapatnam.
It has been over a year since Australia won a series in any limited-overs format, and times have sometimes been rough. Coming to India would have seemed a daunting challenge in that backdrop. But nothing can calm nerves like an opening win. “To beat India in India in a T20 match with a crowd like that … the boys take a lot of confidence from that,” said Peter Handscomb.
But it wasn’t a smooth, seamless effort from the visitors. At one stage they seemed to be cruising towards the 127-run target and looked primed to overhaul it with a few balls to spare.
But once Glenn Maxwell fell to Yuzvendra Chahal for 56, things started unravelling. D’Arcy Short’s run-out for 37, caused in part by Handscomb, too had a role to play in a collapse that saw Australia slip from 89/2 to 113/7. Handscomb himself wasn’t able to stem the rot, as he fell for a 15-ball 13, leaving lower-order batsmen Pat Cummins and Jhye Richardson to pull off a last-over heist.
“Running out D’Arcy probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do,” reflected Handscomb. “He was hitting a boundary an over and getting a single off every other ball so if I could take that back, I would. From there it is tough to go straightaway and score against a world-class attack that is India.
“I went through some serious emotions there in the last over. When I got out I was distraught and then when we won, huge elation, so yeah I think there’s three of four overs that hurt us but ultimately 35 overs of the game we played really well, and that’s what we’re going to focus on.”
Short’s untimely dismissal wasn’t the only run-out in the match. Even Marcus Stoinis’ innings was cut short in the same manner. Handscomb said that batsmen will start communicating better, suggesting it isn’t a reason for much worry.
“Running between the wickets is just one of those things … I hadn’t batted with D’Arcy a lot and Stoin hadn’t batted with D’Arcy a lot. You’ve got a work out the singles you can take and your calls and then it comes by playing more and more with each other. So I wouldn’t be too worried about that going forward.”
