Aaron Finch and his men hold their nerves and end the T20I series with a victory. Australia defeated India in a high scoring clash at SCG and ended the T20I series with a 2-1 scoreline. The win of Australia ended team India’s streak of 9 consecutive wins in the shortest format of the game. Chasing a total 187 runs the men in blue fell short by 12 runs and failed to clean sweep Australia.
Indian captain Virat Kohli won the toss and after the success in the previous match opted to chase. Matthew Wade carried on from where he left and started smashing India bowlers to every part of the ground. The wicket-keeper batsman played a superb knock of 80 runs in just 53 runs and gave the perfect platform to Glenn Maxwell.
The Australian all-rounder lived a charmed life at the crease as India missed several opportunities to dismiss him. Maxwell took full advantage of that and played a much-needed knock of 54 runs. In the death over T. Natarajan once again showed his class and restricted Australia to a gettable total of 186 runs.
Team India’s chase began on the worst possible note as KL Rahul gave away his wicket for a duck in the first over. In came the Indian captain to the crease and after a few initial alarms started anchoring the chase. Wickets kept falling at one end but Kohli stood firm and played some vintage strokes. When the asking run rate kept going away from India the partnership of Hardik Pandya and Kohli brought them into the contest.
Also Read: KL Rahul Is Lucky To Be In The Indian Squad Sanjay Manjrekar Sparks Controversy
Credit To Both Leg Spinners- Aaron Finch
Just when it looked the duo will take India home, Australia picked their wickets in a span of few balls. Kohli was outstanding once again in the chase and scored 85 runs in 61 balls. For Australia, it was their two leg spinners Adam Zampa and Mitchell Swepson that did the damage in the middle overs.
The two leggies never allowed India to score freely after the batting powerplay and combined picked 4 wickets. Post the win Aaron Finch praised his two leg spinners as they changed the match in the middle overs. Here’s what Aaron Finch said in the post-match presentation.
“It was a great series, and we just happened to be on the wrong end of the first two. It’s the first time we’ve had two leg-spinners in the side, and they were bold with the short boundaries here, so credit to both of them. Swepson bowled the 7th over against Shikhar and Virat, both destructive in their own ways, but Zamps bowled really well as well. We played some great white-ball cricket over the last 18 months and really proud of the bunch”.
Also Read: Virat Kohli Points Out Where India Lost The 3rd T20I Against Australia
