
India wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan scored an important fifty against Australia as India chased down 209 to win the first T20I in Visakhapatnam on November 23. Kishan's 58 off 39 balls and a 112-run partnership with skipper Suryakumar Yadav for the fourth-wicket kept India in hunt throughout the chase.
Kishan, who played in first two matches for India in the recently concluded ODI World Cup, spoke about his mindset during the match and said: "During the World Cup, when I wasn't playing, I asked myself before every practice session 'What is important for me now? What I could do?' I practiced a lot in nets. I was constantly talking to the coaches about the game, how to take the game deep. How to target certain bowlers."
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"Being a lefty against leg-spinner, I know how the wicket was as I had kept for 20 overs. When you are chasing 209, you need to target a bowler, who you can hit. The communication was very important in the middle. I had a chat with Surya bhai. 'I'm gonna take this guy ( spinner Tanveer Sangha down) wherever he bowls' because we needed the close the gap between runs and balls. You can't leave too many runs for the batters at the back. It won't be easy for them to play the big shots straight away. I had to take my chances and I believed in myself," he added.
Talking about his partnership with Surya, who played a Player of the Match innings of 42-ball 80, Kishan said that playing for the same IPL team with helped during the match.
"A partnership was very important as we had lost two early wickets. I've played with Surya bhai. We are in the same IPL team so I know how he bats. We were constantly communicating about which bowler to target or how we are going to rotate the strike. The way we executed our plans in the middle... That was the time when I thought we are in the game," Kishan added.
The two-wicket win was India's highest successful chase in T20Is and the team now leads the five-match series 1-0. The second match will be played on November 26 in Thiruvananthapuram.