India have beaten Australia by in the fifth and the final T20I of the five-match series at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday (December 3). In an absolute thriller of a match which went down to the wire, Australia needed 10 runs to win off the final over but Arshdeep Singh held his nerve to concede three as India won the match by 6 runs to clinch the series 4-1.
Australia won the toss and elected to field first in the final match of the series. While they got wickets at regular intervals, half-century from Shreyas Iyer (53 off 37) and useful contributions from Axar Patel (31 off 21) and Jitesh Sharma (24 off 16) ensured the hosts put on a fighting total of 160/8 with Ben Dwarshuis being the pick of the bowlers for 2/30. Jason Behrendorff (2/38), Aaron Hardie (1/21), Tanveer Sangha (1/26) and Nathan Ellis (1/42) were the other wicket-takers for Australia.
In the run chase, Australia got off the blocks quickly but India came back with wickets at regular intervals. The spinners led by Axar Patel helped the hosts take complete control. While Ravi Bishnoi (2/29) produced the wickets, Axar was miserly with the ball and came back to take the important wicket of Tim David eventually finishing with figures of 1/14.
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The contributions of Mukesh Kumar and Arshdeep Singh cannot be ignored though. Mukesh was the leading wicket-taker in this match and finished with figures of 3/32, also picking 2 wickets in 2 balls, Arshdeep picked 2 wickets including the one of Matthew Wade in the last over on his way to successfully defend 10 off the final over. The left-arm pacer eventually finished with figures of 2/40 in his 4 overs.
India’s victory concludes the bilateral series following which India will travel to South Africa for a three-format series with three T20Is, three ODIs and two Test matches set to be played in December-January.
