New Delhi: After a close loss in the third T20I, courtesy of Glenn Maxwell’s iconic century, the men in blue made an emphatic turnaround in the fourth T20I at Raipur, to take the unassailable lead of 3-1 in the series.
India will finally feel somewhat compensated for their World Cup 2023 final loss against the same Australian team, which broke their dream of winning an ICC trophy after a decade.
The win against Australia on Friday, was men in blue’s 136th T20I win in history, which now makes them the most successful T20I team of all time, surpassing Pakistan’s record of 135 T20I wins of all time.
India moves to the 🔝#INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/uhXMJMFN7p
— ICC (@ICC) December 2, 2023
Indian bowlers, who looked off-colour throughout the series, stepped up on Sunday to help their team win by 20 runs against, a rather dangerous-looking Australian team.
Another amazing victory for Team India! 🇮🇳
Congratulations 👏👏#INDvsAUS pic.twitter.com/8n7dvJvSzs
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) November 26, 2023
Axar Patel, Rinku Singh and Jitesh Sharma were heroes for the men in blue in their emphatic win.
As it happened
Coming off from a motivating victory against the hosts, the Aussies were looking to win yet another game on Friday to go into the final match of the series at Bengaluru with a 2-2 standing.
Australian skipper Mathew Wade won the toss and elected to bat first.
India got yet another good start as the openers, Ruturaj Gaikwad (32) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (37), added 50 runs for the first wicket, but the Aussies soon made a comeback and reduced India’s score to 111 for 4.
The unstoppable Rinku Singh. 🔥pic.twitter.com/ACc8li1e0v
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) December 1, 2023
The two youngsters, Rinku Singh (46) and Jitesh Sharma (35), then took charge of the innings to add 56 runs for the fifth wicket, to help India finish with a competitive total of 174 for 9 at the end of 20 overs mark.
How good was Jitesh Sharma last night? pic.twitter.com/vuhfg2TdpL
— Cricketopia (@CricketopiaCom) December 2, 2023
Ben Dwarshuis was the most successful bowler for Australia, with 3 wickets under his belt, while Tanveer Sangha and Jason Behrendorff took 2 wickets each.
In reply, Australia started strong by adding 40 runs for the first wicket in just 19 balls. However, as soon as Axar removed the dangerous-looking Travis Head (31), India made a comeback and reduced the Australian innings to 87 for 4.
Matthew Short (22) and Mathew Wade (36*) tried to take their home but fell 20 runs too short of the winning total.
Proper bowling performance from Axar Patel 🤝🏻 gets two important wickets with economy of just 4 👏🏻#INDvsAUS | #AxarPatel pic.twitter.com/mD6oES5lLG
— ishaan (@ixxcric) December 1, 2023
Axar Patel was the pick of the bowlers for India with his man-of-the-match winning spell of 3 for 16 in 4 overs.
