India edge past Australia in a nail-biting thriller to win the T20I series by a 4-1 margin

Team India finished on an incredible high as they went onto tame Australia in a nail-biting thriller in the final T20I of the series to stretch their winning cushion to 4-1. A contest that had India staring down the barrel with Matthew Wade’s late resurgence saw a momentous twist as Arshdeep Singh produced a miserly final over where he defended nine runs to help India cap off the series on a high.

Winning the toss, Australia put India to bat. Despite roaring off to a feisty start, courtesy of Yashasvi Jaiswal, the hosts had early trouble to brave as they lost a flurry of wickets in very short succession.

Jaiswal (21), Ruturaj Gaikwad (10), Suryakumar Yadav (5) and Rinku Singh (6) departed early to leave the Indian top-order crumbling. Shreyas Iyer put up a warring display alongside Jitesh Sharma to help India stabilize the ship. However, Sharma’s early shards of resistance fizzled away as he fell for 24.

Iyer continued battling and he was joined by Axar Patel in the center as the two managed to steer India clear of any immediate danger. From 97/5, the duo catapulted the Men in Blue to143/6. Despite a late slump, Team India managed to post 160, a total that gave a fighting chance to Surya and company.

Australia made all the right noises at the start, courtesy of Travis Head’s fiery display but Mukesh Kumar chipped in with the important wicket of Josh Phillippe at the other end that dampened the scoring rate of the visitors. Head fell to Ravi Bishnoi shortly for a well-orchestrated 28.

Aaron Hardie couldn’t last long either as he holed out Gaikwad off Bishnoi’s bowling as India burst back to life. However, a resilient showdown by Ben McDermott and Tim David saw Australia fighting back.

A 47-run stand between David (17) and Ben (54) came to an end as Axar Patel forced the mishit from the former while Arshdeep Singh got the better of the latter.

Mukesh Kumar’s double whammy in the 17th over did pave the path of fightback for the Indian team but the match swung back in Australia’s favour as their skipper, Wade, started firing on all cylinders.

Nathan Ellis held fort at one end while Wade went on a full-blown assault at the other. With 10 needed from the final over, Arshdeep bowled one of the finest overs of the series. He started off with a bumper which was a slightly controversial from the umpire while the following delivery was a picture-perfect yorker that left Wade frustrated.

The third ball of the over saw the Aussie skipper losing his resolve as he went after Arshdeep only to find Shreyas Iyer at long-on as he was dismissed for the first time in the tournament. Following Wade’s departure, despite the strongest of efforts by Behrendorff and Ellis to scythe the ball to the ropes, it was the hosts that emerged victorious as India secured a thrilling 6-run win against Australia making it 4-1 at the end of it all.