Australia hold nerve to claim T20 thriller

The result: India 7-126 (Rahul 50, Coulter-Nile 3-26) lost to Australia 7-127 (Maxwell 56, Bumrah 3-16) by three wickets with zero balls to spare.

The match in a tweet: Cummins the hour, Cummins the man! Pace ace Pat Cummins and rookie Jhye Richardson blast 14 off the final over to hand the Aussies a thrilling T20I win in Vizag.

The finish: Cruising at 2-89 in the 13th over chasing 127 to win, Australia looked set to record an upset win in the series opener in Vizag. But the wicket of Glenn Maxwell for 56 saw the tourists' run chase screech to a halt. Ten balls later D'Arcy Short was run out for 37 from as many deliveries in a bad mix-up with debutant Peter Handscomb before Ashton Turner was bowled by Krunal Pandya for a five-ball duck. Handscomb tried his hardest to make amends for the Short run-out, but when he fell top-edging Jasprit Bumrah to MS Dhoni, and Nathan Coulter-Nile was bowled the next ball, Australia had lost 4-12 and the match seemed gone. But there was one twist left. Jhye Richardson heaved the second ball of the final over from Umesh Yadav to the mid-wicket boundary to reduce the equation to nine runs off four balls. A two and a single put Pat Cummins on strike, who laced the penultimate delivery to the cover rope before he and Richardson scrambled for two from the final ball to seal a thrilling win.

The hero: There's something about bowling first-change for Australia. Pat Cummins has risen to the top of the Test rankings bowling behind Mitch Starc and Josh Hazlewood and on Sunday night it was Nathan Coulter-Nile who was Australia's No.1 quick bowling first-change. After his first over, the fifth of India's innings, Coulter-Nile returned in the 13th to take the wickets of in-form batsman KL Rahul and uproot Dinesh Karthik's middle stump. Six balls later, the Western Australian had Krunal Pandya top-edging an easy catch to Glenn Maxwell at cover to reduce the hosts to 6-100. He capped off a superb display by conceding seven off the final over, albeit with MS Dhoni bizarrely declining singles to retain the strike, to finish with figures of 3-26 from four overs.

The supporting cast: Entering at 2-5 to a frenzied capacity crowd, Glenn Maxwell silenced those in the stands and wrestled the momentum from India in no time. He sent his fifth ball to the rope, then sent Umesh Yadav to the rope three times in his next four deliveries. It was sublime counter-punching any pugilist would be proud of as he hammered two huge sixes down the ground. The right-hander brought up his half-century from 40 balls but just as he had the game by the scruff of the neck, he holed out to long-off with his side needing 38 runs from 40 balls.

The consolation effort: With India opting to rest swashbuckling opener Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul got his chance and made the most of it. The right-hander blazed a rapid half-century, a knock that featured six fours and one six. His early boundaries came from extraordinary lofted drives as he hit through the line of the ball and finished with one hand off the bat. That shot was productive but brought about his downfall as he spooned a simple catch to Finch at mid-off from Coulter-Nile's bowling.

The collapse: A brilliant piece of fielding from towering quick Jason Behrendorff sparked a collapse of 5-29 that India could not recover from. Fielding at backward point, Behrendorff dived full stretch to his left to intercept a skewed drive from Rishabh Pant, who took off looking for a single. Still in motion, Behrendorff then hurled the ball to wicketkeeper Peter Handscomb, who calmly flicked off the bails with Pant stranded mid-pitch. What followed was a collapse of 5-29, with Coulter-Nile doing the bulk of the damage. "Really happy with that, we've been working on our fielding a lot, especially in this past week, so to make a clean pick up like that and the throw was close enough," said Behrendorff on his game-changing run-out.

The change-up: Australia pulled a few surprises on Sunday night and one of them was a new opening combination in D'Arcy Short and Marcus Stoinis. The pair were the form openers of the BBL|08, alongside Hurricanes captain Matthew Wade, so the decision made sense but unfortunately the duo's maiden top-order partnership lasted just 12 balls – a mix-up ending Stoinis's innings on one. Regular opener Aaron Finch came in at No.3 but was out first ball, trapped lbw by paceman Jasprit Bumrah. Finch reviewed the umpire's decision but the on-field call was upheld when ball tracking confirmed the delivery was clipping leg stump.

The debut: Handscomb became the 94th Australian to play T20 international cricket on Sunday. The right-hander was a surprise selection over vice-captain Alex Carey and took the gloves for the series opener. Close friend and Melbourne Stars teammate Stoinis presented Handscomb with his maiden cap an hour before play.

The stat: While Maxwell has bulk experience playing in India, tonight's inning was his first T20 half-century in the subcontinent since 68 for Kings XI Punjab against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens in May 2016. Between fifties, Maxwell had gone 30 T20 innings in India without raising his bat, but that streak ended in Vizag.

The next stop: Both sides travel to Bengaluru for Wednesday's second and final T20I before attention shifts to the five-match ODI series.

Australia: Aaron Finch (c), D'Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Peter Handscomb (wk), Ashton Turner, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Jhye Richardson, Jason Behrendorff, Adam Zampa.

India: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (c), Rishabh Pant, MS Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Krunal Pandya, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Manyak Markande, Jasprit Bumrah

Qantas tour of India

First T20: Australia won by three wickets

Second T20: February 27, Bengaluru

First ODI: March 2, Hyderabad

Second ODI: March 5, Nagpur

Third ODI: March 8, Ranchi

Fourth ODI: March 10, Mohali

Fifth ODI: March 13, Delhi