Poor weather sees play abandoned at the MCG with just 19 overs of play possible
Match Report:
ScorecardRain ruins second Australia-India T20
Persistent rain saw the second Gillette T20 International washed out, sparing Australia after India had taken the upper hand in the first innings at the MCG.
Australia had scraped to 7-132 with one over left when rain stopped play in the T20 International. Ben McDermott had top-scored with 32 and Andrew Tye was on 16 in a late fightback.
The driving rain that had made most of Friday miserable in Melbourne returned during the 19th over and eventually forced the players from the MCG.
Despite a few false starts with India set revised targets from 11 overs and then from five overs, both attempts to restart the game were nixed as the rain returned just as players were about to walk back onto the field.
The match was eventually called off just after 10pm, with Australia taking a 1-0 lead into the final game of the three-match series on Sunday at the SCG.
The cold and wet conditions matched the home side's early fortunes, with Billy Stanlake ruled out of the match when he rolled an ankle during the warm-up. Nathan Coulter-Nile replaced him in the XI.
Then Australia lost the toss and they steadily lost wickets before some late-order resistance. Despite the poor weather throughout most of Friday, the match started on time.
The conditions were so dismal that Dinesh Karthik wore a beanie in the field.
The hosts made a disastrous start when Aaron Finch tried to drive a wide delivery from Bhuvneshwar Kumar and was caught behind for a golden duck on the second ball of the innings.
The Australian T20 captain has made just 96 runs from his last 10 international innings.
No top order batsman made it past 20 and when local favourite Glenn Maxwell was bowled for 19, Australia were in dire straits at 5-62.
Coulter-Nile, coming in at No.8, belted two sixes in his quickfire 20 as the Australians staged a rearguard action.
Kumar had two wickets and Jasprit Bumrah took 1-20 from his four overs.
The final match of the series will be played in Sydney on Sunday.
Australia XI: Aaron Finch (c), D'Arcy Short, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Ben McDermott, Alex Carey (wk), Nathan Coulter-Nile, Andrew Tye, Jason Behrendorff, Adam Zampa. Late change with NCN in for Big Billy #AUSvIND— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) November 23, 2018
India XI: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (c), KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Khaleel Ahmeed, Jasprit Bumrah. Unchanged #AUSvIND— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) November 23, 2018
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Gillette T20s v India
November 21: Australia won by four runs (DLS method)
November 23: MCG
November 25: SCG
Australia T20 squad: Aaron Finch (c), Alex Carey, Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, D'Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.
India T20 squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant (wk), Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed.