India once again chased a good looking total with ease. They were all over the place and the man, Kohli, was the one to provide stability to his team after losing wickets. Australia, while batting first, was at a good position until Krunal Pandya drew the first blood.
Australian innings:
After being invited to bat in the previous two T20s, Australia won the toss and opted to bat. They looked quite good in this T20 and openers Short and Finch accounted for 68 runs together. Kuldeep Yadav provided the well-built-partnership breaking wicket by dismissing Aaron Finch for the 2nd time in this series. Stickiness to Krunal Pandya for 3rd T20 bore fruit as he spun the game in their favour. He started with trapping D’arcy Short and Ben Mcdermott – who tried the sweep shot first up against him – in front of the stumps.
Suddenly Australia, from 68/1, were 73/3 and in all sorts of trouble. Krunal Pandya’s good day continued as he influenced a flat shot from Maxwell into the hands of Rohit at long-on. Earlier he dropped a skier of Finch but wasn’t costly. Carey looked good but slog-swept one straight to mid-wicket, trying to dispatch Pandya into the stands. Late boundary flow from Stoinis help Australia post a total of 164. Chris Lynn couldn’t show his power due to a run-out, courtesy a good throw by Bumrah and poor calling.
Indian innings :
India’s explosive opening duo started typically with some fireworks, pickup-pulls from Rohit and loose-bat drives and slog sweep to fast bowlers by Shikhar. They were cruising towards the victory right from the beginning until Starc came to bowl his third over. Starc looked very good in his comeback and trapped Shikhar on the pads with a soaring yorker-length delivery. Zampa caught Rohit’s weakness and went through him with a skiddy leg break and provided more hope.
KL Rahul, except a pull over midwicket boundary, was in a poor run of form and ended today’s innings on strike rate of 70. Pant too gloved one to Carey on his first ball. But Kohli wasn’t to stop at the other end. He kept taking on every bowler and carved his way through a well-played fifty. Dinesh Khartik released the little bit of pressure created at the end with a six. With 5 requiring from the last over, Tye bowled two dots but then conceded two consecutive boundaries from the bat of Kohli – India winning comprehensively at the end.
Krunal Pandya was the man of the match for his figures of 4-0-36-4.
Shikhar Dhawan was the man of the series for his 117 runs in series (2 innings).
