MCG T20I: Josh Hazlewood equals Starc's tally with stunning spell
What's the story
Team India suffered a stunning top-order collapse in the second T20I match against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The Indian batting order crumbled under pressure, with senior pacer Josh Hazlewood leading the charge. He took three wickets in the first six overs of India's innings, including captain Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma in one over. With this spell, Hazlewood has now become Australia's joint-second-highest wicket-taker in T20Is. He equaled Mitchell Starc's record.
Match details
Hazlewood's brilliance stuns India
Hazlewood, who went wicket-less in two of his last three outings in the ongoing series, returned to form at MCG. He dismissed SKY with an unplayable delivery while vice-captain Shubman Gill and Varma fell to careless shots. Gill, in the third over of the game, tried to hit Hazlewood out of the park but ended up giving an easy catch to captain Mitchell Marsh after barely clearing mid-off. Suryakumar and Tilak were trapped in the fifth over.
Additional wickets
Samson and Axar fall prey to careless shots
Wicketkeeper-batter Sanju Samson, who was promoted up the order, was dismissed LBW off Nathan Ellis's bowling after scoring just two runs in four balls. The situation worsened for India when all-rounder Axar Patel was run out at the striker's end for seven runs. This happened just as he was starting to rebuild the innings with opener Abhishek Sharma, reducing India to 50/5 by the end of the eighth over.
Stats
Hazlewood goes par with Starc
Hazlewood bowled all his four overs on the bounce to finish with 3/13. Playing his 60th T20I, the pacer has raced to 79 wickets at an economy of 21.26. Notably, Starc also ended his T20I career with 79 scalps. Hence, Hazlewood now only trails veteran leg-spinner Adam Zampa in terms of T20I wickets in Australian colors (131 wickets).
Information
Best figures versus India
Notably, Hazlewood just had four wickets in his previous seven T20Is against India. He recorded his best figures against them. Meanwhile, the pacer now has 33 wickets in home T20Is at 21.03. Overall in T20 cricket, he now boasts 170 scalps at 21-plus.