India spooked as Hazlewood leads Aussies' Halloween heroics

Josh Hazlewood turned the MCG's wave of blue into a haunted house for India as the paceman's perfect Ashes sign-off on a spicy surface spooked the visitors and put Australia on course for a Halloween evening T20 triumph.

Hazlewood, playing his final white-ball international before reporting for Ashes duty, spearheaded a frightening new-ball blitz as he sent down four straight overs for a return of 3-13. The right-armer picked off batting superstars Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma all for single digits as the visitors were rolled for just 125 in the second T20I under cloudy Melbourne skies.

Australia lost regular wickets in their haste to reach the target, but Mitch Marsh's 26-ball 46 gave them enough of a headstart to see them home by four wickets.

India would have been lost without the lone-hand effort of Abhishek Sharma, who appeared to bat on a different pitch to his teammates. But Australia cleverly denied him the strike to see him face just 37 of the 111 balls he was in the middle for.

The left-hander still stroked 68 but only one other Indian (Harshit Rana, 35 off 33) reached double digits as the buzz generated by 82,328 mainly India-supporting fans fizzled out over the course of the one-sided contest.

Jasprit Bumrah had been his side's best hope to match Hazlewood's heroics, and while Australia may still have nightmares of his Test tour here last summer, the speedster was wayward with new ball as the hosts took 56 off a Powerplay he bowled half the overs in.

But Bumrah then revived those bad memories in his final over.

The right-armer dismissed Mitchell Owen and the recalled Matthew Short, bowled by a devastating yorker for a golden duck just five days after he underwent finger surgery, in consecutive balls when the Aussies needed two to win.

Xavier Bartett (0no) saw off the hat-trick ball before Marcus Stoinis (6no) hit the winning runs off Kuldeep Yadav to seal the four-wicket victory with 6.4 overs to spare.

India's puzzling decision to pick three spinners on a seaming deck limited the options of captain Suryakumar Yadav, although their most effective bowler proved leggie Varun Chakaravarthy, who showed why he is the world's No.1 T20I bowler in dismissing two of Australia's dangermen.

After having Travis Head (28 off 15) caught by a fleet-footed Tilak Varma in front of the Members' End sightscreen, Chakaravarthy deceived dangerman Tim David to have him offer a limp caught and bowled.

After the first T20I was washed out in Canberra, it sees Australia take a 1-0 series lead heading into Sunday's match in Hobart.

It was the perfect white-ball exit for Hazlewood, who will now be released from the T20I squad to play in New South Wales' next Sheffield Shield match (against Victoria at the SCG) to prime him for the first Ashes Test.

Hazlewood was ably supported by Nathan Ellis, who shone in his first international match at the MCG with a pair of lbws. The right-armer's pinpoint yorker finally accounted for Abhishek during the penultimate over of India's innings, having earlier nipped one back to the pads of Sanju Samson in the Powerplay.

Marsh earlier bore a wide smile after winning his 16th toss from 22 T20Is and the movement extracted by each of Australia's seamers vindicated his preferred option of inserting his opponents.

The first three deliveries of the game were a portent for the carnage to follow. Facing Hazlewood, Gill was given out first ball (his lbw was overturned on review), played and missed at the second, and struck on the helmet on the third.

Gill's subsequent dismissal was the first of four inside the Powerplay, in which Abhishek scored all but 11 of the 40 runs eked out by the visiting team.

The 25-year-old feasted on the slowest member of the Australian pace attack, smacking 29 off the 10 deliveries Xavier Bartlett bowled to him.

But Bartlett redeemed himself by breaking India's biggest partnership (56 for the sixth wicket) when he dismissed Rana with a well-disguised back-of-the-hand slower ball and then had Shivam Dube caught behind by a diving Inglis.

Two run outs underscored India's miserable night, the second a comical mix-up that resulted in Bumrah being run out by the bowler Ellis by half the pitch.

Australia v India T20Is 2025

October 29: No result

October 31: Australia won by four wickets

November 2: Third T20I v India, Bellerive Oval, Hobart, 7:15pm AEDT

November 6: Fourth T20I v India, Gold Coast Stadium, Gold Coast, 7:15pm AEDT

November 8: Fifth T20I v India, The Gabba, Brisbane, 7:15pm AEDT

Australia squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott (games 1-3), Xavier Bartlett, Mahli Beardman (games 3-5), Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis (games 4-5), Nathan Ellis, Josh Hazlewood (games 1-2), Ben McDermott (standby player) Glenn Maxwell (games 3-5), Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Matthew Kuhnemann, Mitchell Owen, Josh Philippe (wk), Matthew Short, Marcus Stoinis, Tanveer Sangha

India squad: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (wk), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar