With a commanding victory in the most recent T20I, the Indian Cricket Team has taken a lead in their ongoing series against Australia with just one game to go.
The fourth of five Australia vs India T20Is was played in the Carrara Stadium in Gold Coast and saw the home side win the toss, deciding to bowl first on a pitch that was expected to help pacers in the early proceedings.
Australia vs India: India Takes 2-1 Lead After 4th T20I Win
Despite that, India got off to a solid start, with openers Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma succeeding in keeping their wickets throughout the powerplay. This was an uncharacteristic start for an otherwise explosive Abhishek. He was almost run-a-ball for much of his time on the pitch.
In the first six overs, the two managed to make 49 runs before, in the seventh, Sharma was dismissed by Adam Zampa at the first occasion a spinner was brought into the game, making 28 off 21.
And then, a change in the batting order, something that has been happening regularly for India this series. Shivam Dube was sent in at number three and played a supporting role alongside Gill, who was focusing on surviving through the challenging conditions.
At the 10-over mark, the Indian scorecard read 75-1. However, soon after, in the 12th over, Dube got out for 22 off 18. A quickfire inning by captain Suryakumar Yadav took India past the 100-run mark.
But then, in three overs, the Men in Blue lost three wickets. First, on the 15th, Gill was dismissed for 46 runs off 39 balls; then, on the 16th, SKY got out for 20 off 10; and then, at the start of the 17th over, Tilak Varma departed after making just five runs. In the same over, Jitesh Sharma got out for three off four.
In 17 overs, the Indian Cricket Team’s score was 137/6, as the lower-middle order was expected to slog around in the final three. This duty was taken up by Axar Patel, who ended up making an unbeaten 21 off 11. He, with a little help from Washington Sundar (12 off 7), took India to a respectable score of 167/8 in their allotted overs.
For the Kangaroos, both Nathan Ellis and Adam Zampa took three wickets each. But, while Zampa conceded 45 runs in his four overs at an economy of 11.25, Ellis gave away only 21 at a fine economy of 5.25.
India ended up with a solid score to defend. However, as soon as the Australian Cricket Team’s inning started, it seemed that the hosts would run away with the game. The opening duo of Matt Short and skipper Mitchell Marsh took the score to 35 in the first four overs. And while Short got out in the fifth over for 25 off 19, the Aussies were still the favourite to win this one, seeing that the score at the end of the powerplay was 48/1.
After a slowdown of the run rate for the next few overs, Josh Inglis got out for 12 off 11 in the ninth over. This was the start of the Australian collapse. Marsh was dismissed for 30 off 24 a few deliveries later, Tim David made 14 off nine before getting out, and then Hosh Philippe made a run-a-ball 10 before his dismissal. All this happened before the start of the 14th over.
With six overs remaining, the Australian scoreline read 99/5. With five wickets in hand, the hosts needed 69 runs to win. However, they wouldn’t even go near that target.
Glenn Maxwell got out in the 15th after making just a couple of runs, Marcus Stoinis made 17 off 19 before getting out in the 17th, and Xavier Barlett was dismissed for a golden duck on the very next ball. And with the score being 116/8 at this point, all chances of Australia pulling this game back ended.
It took an over or so for India to inflict an all-out on the Aussies, as the home side were dismissed for 119 runs in 18.2 overs. The Men in Blue won the match by 48 runs. Washington Sundar was the pick of the bowlers, taking three wickets in the eight deliveries he bowled.
However, it was Axar Patel who was named the Player of the Match. He bowled a four-over spell of 2/20, taking crucial wickets of Matt Short and Josh Inglis. He also scored 21 off 11 in the death overs of the Indian innings.
With this win, the visitors have taken a 2-1 lead in this Australia vs India series with just one game to go. The fifth and final match of this series will be played on Saturday, November 8, at the Brisbane Cricket Ground.
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