India win T20I series v Aus 4-1 with a 6 run win in a thriller, Axar shines

 

The Indian cricket team, filled with the zeal and enthusiasm of the young players, ended the T20 series against Australia in the same strong manner as it had started.  In the fifth and last T20 match of the series played at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, Team India once again defended a small score on the strength of its bowlers and defeated Australia by 6 runs.  With this, Team India won the 5-match series 4-1.  Also, Suryakumar Yadav has given a tremendous audition after getting the captaincy for the first time.

 In this match held on Sunday 3rd December at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, it was expected that there would be a lot of runs, as has always been the case on this ground.  However, Chinnaswamy's pitch surprised everyone and an exciting match with low scores was witnessed.  For the third consecutive match, Australia captain Matthew Wade won the toss and decided to bowl first, but for the second consecutive match, his batsmen spoiled the hard work of the bowlers.

 

 Like every previous match, this time also Team India lost the first wicket in the power play after a fast start.  Yashasvi Jaiswal (21) again started with big shots and was out again getting caught off a mistimed pull off Behrendorff.  However, this time the rest of the batsmen also failed to handle the innings.  Ruturaj Gaikwad (10) and captain Suryakumar Yadav (5) were also out in quick succession.  By the 10th over, Rinku Singh (6) also returned to the pavilion. Rinku could not make any impact for the first time in this series.

 Only 4 wickets had fallen for 55 runs and Team India was looking in trouble.  Shreyas Iyer (53), however, stood firm on the other side.  He made a fast paced  partnership of 42 runs with Jitesh Sharma (24 runs, 16 balls) who hit some stupendous shots .  Like the previous match, Jitesh again improved the team's position by playing a short but fast-paced innings.  Then Shreyas got the support of Akshar Patel (31 runs, 21 balls) and both of them added 46 runs with several hard hitting shots and took the team to 143 runs.  Iyer (53) was out in the last over after scoring his half-century and Team India scored 160 runs after losing 8 wickets in 20 overs.

Dwarshuis and Behrendorff both took 2 wickets for Australia while Hardie and Sangha both picked 1 wicket and bowled tight . 

 Once again Travis Head (28) made a flying start for Australia but the second opener Josh Philippe (4) was again dismissed cheaply.  He was bowled by Mukesh Kumar (3/32) in the very third over.  Head's attack continued and Ben McDermott also came to support him.  Then the same thing happened, which happened in almost every match of this series.  Leg spinner Ravi Bishnoi (2/29), who came to bowl in the powerplay, brought success as soon as he came.  Bishnoi bowled Head (28 off 18 balls)  in his very first over.  Then in his next over the young bowler also took the wicket of Aaron Hardie (6).  McDermough kept scoring runs from the other side and kept the team alive in the match.

 However, the end of the series was also disappointing for Tim David (17) and this explosive batsman could not make any impact again.  Akshar (1/16), who showed strength with the bat, again did wonders in the middle overs and dismissed David.  Australia suffered its biggest blow in the 15th over when Arshdeep Singh dismissed McDermott (54 off 36 balls).  Then in the 17th over, Mukesh tilted the match in favor of India.  He took the wickets of a dangerous looking Matthew Short (16) and Ben Dwarshuis (0) , who were proving dangerous, on consecutive balls.  Once again Wade (22) was in control which some glorious shots but Arshdeep Singh (2/40) dismissed him in the last over and did not allow Australia to score the required 10 runs.  The Australian team could score only 154 runs after losing 8 wickets.

Mukesh Kumar (3 wickets ) , Arshdeep and Bishnoi ( 2 wickets each ) bowled really well while Akshar ( 1/14 in 4 overs) bowled very tight and along with his quickfire 31 won the player of the match . Ravi Bishnoi with 9 wickets at 18 average won the player of the series .