A punishing 72 from Matthew Wade and telling cameos with bat and ball from David Hussey delivered a 31-run victory for Australia over India in the first Twenty20 international at Stadium Australia in Sydney, which hosted events during the Olympics in 2000.
Watched by a crowd of 59,659, the largest ever for a cricket match in Sydney, Australia's new Twenty20 captain George Bailey enjoyed the winner's plaudits in his first match, just as Dave Gregory had done in the very first Test in 1877 when he was the last Australian to make his debut as captain.
His ingenuity in the field rather contrasted with India's captain, MS Dhoni. In the penultimate over, with the target well out of reach, Dhoni's bat flew from his hands as he attempted to make a defiant swing at Brett Lee. The tour has gone the same way, and it did not improve in the format of the IPL.
At the start of what amounts to a five-match Twenty20 and ODI audition for a more permanent berth behind the stumps in place of Brad Haddin, Wade did his cause no harm with an innings of poise, power and some invention after Dhoni sent the hosts in to bat.
Wade and Hussey pushed Australia to 4 for 171, a steep target on a tacky pitch, before Bailey employed a trio of spinners to devastating effect. Hussey took the figures with 2 for 4 from his two overs, but the recalled 40-year-old Brad Hogg and the Twenty20 debutant Xavier Doherty also helped to sink India's chase after they had made a promising start to be 1 for 47 in the sixth over.
If the chase was to succeed, India's pursuit likely required a sizeable score from Virender Sehwag. He managed one cut that skimmed to the backward point boundary, but the early swing gained by Lee was enough to draw an edge from a bat angled towards mid-on, and Hussey held the sharp chance at slip.
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