Australia prevented complete sweep as they won the final T20I by 12 runs.
The all-round show from the Australian helped them prevent a clean sweep against India in the final T20I at Sydney. Virat Kohli’s well-fought 85 runs could not prevent a 12 runs loss in the 3rd Twenty20 game against the hosts. With the win, Australia broke India’s 10 match winning streak.
India bagged the T20I series already in the second encounter 2-1. However, the loss in the third outing restricted India to get a 100% win record in the year 2020 in the shortest format of the game.
Earlier, India won the toss and opt to bowl without any change in the playing 11.
Australian Innings:
Australia played with their regular skipper in the 3rd T20I but he was sent to rest in the second over off Washington Sundar.
Matthew Wade looked in the same touch and picked from where he left in the previous game. Wade pushed his gears to make most of the power plays.
Steve Smith initially supported Wade but got out in the 10th over.
Matthew Wade completed his half-century very quickly. However, Maxwell from another end was smacking bowlers for some good reverse shots.
Maxwell also completes his half-century after some dropped chances from the Fielding side.
Wade in order to accelerate the innings, lost his wicket in the penultimate over off Shardul Thakur scoring 80 from 53. While Maxwell could not hit the ball in the last over and got bowled off T Natarajan.
With the supreme efforts from Matthew Wade (80 from 53) and Glenn Maxwell (54 from 36), Australia imposed 186-5 in 20 overs.
Returning with the figures 2/34 Washington Sundar was the pick of the bowlers while T Natarajan and Shardul Thakur picked one each.
India Innings:
India could not give a steady start to the chase, KL Rahul went for a duck in the second ball of the innings, trying to hit Maxwell to Long on.
Virat Kohli almost followed KL Rahul in the third over but was dropped by Steve Smith.
Kohli made most of the given opportunities as he was dropped by Andrew Tye off his own bowling.
The Indian Skipper was the lone warrior in the run chase, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, and Sanju Samson were sent in quick succession by Mitchell Swepson.
Hardik Pandya stepped in to support the skipper but went back to duck-out after getting 20 from 13. With the increasing pressure at the death overs, Kohli went off Andrew Tye but was caught at the backward point.
Danial Sams picked a good catch by diving forward departing skipper Kohli (85 off 61). Kohli hit 4 boundaries and 3 sixes in his innings.
At the end of 2 overs, India were restricted to just 174-7. Australia prevented a complete sweep as they won the final T20I by 12 runs.
Mitchell Swepson was Australia’s bowling pick, picking 3 scalps for just 23 runs.
India and Australia will now begin preparing for the Test Series starting 17th December.
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