Australia has ended India’s 10 match winning streak after beating the latter in a high scoring game by 12 runs in Sydney on Tuesday.
Put in to bat by India, Australian opener Matthew Wade gave Australia a good start despite losing Aaron Finch in the very second over for a duck. Wade and Smith put on a 65 run stand before the latter was dismissed in the 10th over. Glenn Maxwell and Wade took on the Indian bowlers and smashed 90 runs in the next 9 overs before the latter was dismissed after smashing 80 runs off 53 balls. Maxwell was given multiple reprieves before being bowled by T Natarajan. Australia ended with 186-5 in 20 overs. For India, Washington Sundar picked two wickets, while Natarajan and Shardul Thakur picked up one apiece.
While chasing, India lost KL Rahul for a second-ball duck. However, Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan but on 74 before the latter was dismissed for 28 runs in 21 balls. Sanju Samson joined Kohli and the duo put up 23 runs in 22 balls before Samson was dismissed for 10 runs off 9 balls. Three balls later, Shreyas Iyer was dismissed for a first ball. Kohli was playing a gem of an innings but was losing partners on the other. Hardik Pandya joined the skipper and stitched 44 runs in 25 balls, before departing for 20 runs off 13. With the asking rate climbing further, Kohli scored a magnificent 85 runs off 61 balls. By the time Kohli was dismissed, India’s hopes of extending their win streak to 11 came to an end. However, Thakur tried to get India over the line by smashing 17 runs off 7 balls but it was too late. For Australia, the spin trio of Maxwell, Mitchell Swepson and Adam Zampa did well to defend 186 runs.
For his figures of 4 over, 23 runs and 3 wickets, Swepson was awarded the Man of the Match. The Man of the Series went to Hardik Pandya for his prowess with the bat but decided to hand over the award to Natarajan for performing well in his debut white-ball series. Natarajan picked up six wickets in his first three T20I matches.
