VISAKHAPATNAM: It is very uncharacteristic for the Australian bowlers to be erratic but on Thursday night, the visitors’ bowling unit couldn’t get their line right. The Australians conceded a whopping 12 wides which meant that the Indians had two extra overs to bat.
At the end, the extra balls did play an important role in the game, but centurion Josh Inglisdoesn’t blame the bowlers for the fiasco.Instead, he credits Indian skipperSuryakumar Yadav for putting the bowlers under such immense pressure that they faltered.

“It is obviously not ideal to bowl so many wides but I think SKY is such a hard guy to bowl to and he was taking the pace of the ball and moving around the crease so much and had put immense pressure on the bowlers. We need to clean this up in the next few games,” Inglis said after the game.

“It’s hard to say really where we went wrong. It’s a pretty wicket and SKY did what he regularly does. It was an exceptional innings today. And with Ishan (Kishan) top there, it was not easy for us. Maybe if we had got a wicket or two earlier, the pressure would have been on the Indians. Maybe it would have been a different scenario then. But, on the whole, it was a good day of cricket,” Inglis added.
Australia were penalized for maintaining a slow overrate and had to lose the services of a fielder on the boundary in the 19th and 20th overs. “It is never ideal to have a fielder less on the boundary at the back end as having an extra catcher on the boundary puts pressure on the batters,” the Australian said.
Despite the loss, it was a fruitful day for Inglis personally. The Australian not only smashed his maiden century in international cricket but also went on to become the joint fastest centurion for Australia in T20Is. He equalled the record of former captain Aaron Finch, who hammered a 47-ball ton against England in 2013 in Southampton.

Inglis also became Australia’s fastest centurion against India in T20I cricket. He went past Maxwell, who smashed a 50-ball ton against India in 2019. Overall, this knock from Inglis was the second fastest T20I ton against India after David Miller, who got it in 46 balls.
Asked about his record-breaking innings, Inglis said: “It’s nice to get the monkey off the back, I suppose. The focus was on winning the game but, unfortunately, we couldn’t get it today. The mindset is pretty good. The T20 World Cup is around the corner and it’s a good opportunity to get some T20 cricket before the big event. I gave 100 percent of my effort in that direction.”