Australia defeated India by five wickets thanks to an absolutely unbelievable run chase almost entirely spearheaded by Glenn Maxwell. Ruturaj Gaikwad scored a century to lead India to a 222/3 total. Even though Australia’s batsmen consistently lost wickets, they managed to stay within the required run rate. In the end, Maxwell was essentially the only player who maintained their run rate continuously while Marcus Stoinis supported on the opposite end. It was nearly a one-man show.
It took Captain Matthew Wade some time to get going as well, but in the end, he was able to support Maxwell in his attack. Wade was on 28 off 16 balls when Maxwell finished unbeaten on 104 off 48 balls, with a six and three fours off the final four balls of the match.
For India, leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi claimed two wickets.
Earlier, when batting first, India got off to a rough start as Ishan Kishan and Yashasvi Jaiswal fell early. On the second delivery of the second over, Jason Behrendorff dismissed India’s Yashasvi Jaiswal (6) as Wade caught the ball. Shortly after, Stoinis catches Ishan Kishan on the third delivery of the third over, and Kane Richardson takes him. Ruturaj Gaikwad and Suryakumar then steadied the vessel. Before SKY was dismissed for 39 off 29, the two scored 57 off 47 balls for the third wicket. Since then, Gaikwad has persevered and made an even stronger statement along with Tilak Varma, celebrating his 50 in the process.
After that, Gaikwad picked up a significant pace, eventually surpassing 100 in 52 balls. Glenn Maxwell bowled the final over of the Indian innings, which went for a massive thirty runs. Gaikwad finished undefeated at 123 off 57 balls as India finished with a total of 222/3.
Tilak Varma and Gaikwad combined for 141 runs in just 59 balls, with Varma scoring just 39 runs in 29 balls.
Aaron Hardie, Jason Behrendorff, and Kane Richardson each took one wicket for Australia.
In their first two Twenty20 matches, the Men in Blue have looked impeccable, and the Indian batsmen have amazed everyone by scoring over 200 runs in each of the two games. Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Ravi Bishnoi, and the other bowlers from India will be trying to chip in more to relieve some of the load on the batsmen, who are already under a lot of strain without bowling all-rounder Hardik Pandya.
Suryakumar Yadav, who is leading the team for the first time in this T20 series, has never lost before. SKY will aim to make this series memorable for him as captain by handily defeating the Kangaroos following the ODI World Cup.
Australia will be without seasoned opener Steve Smith and wrist-spinner Adam Zampa ahead of their Twenty20 match on Tuesday. Cricket Australia has already called in replacements for a number of Australian players who will be returning home on Wednesday, including Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis.
The T20 World Cup coming up next year has added extra significance to this series, and Australia, who have looked worn out from their extended stay in India, will need to improve in every area to be competitive.
Maxwell’s innings were praised by Surya after the game, who called it “insane” and said, “We just wanted to get Maxi out quickly (laughs), that was the plan.” However, you have to give the bowlers something while defending 222 in a situation when there is a lot of dew. Similar to how we played in Trivandrum, where there was a lot of dew and they lost wickets early on but were always in the game because they had wickets in hand. I instructed the boys to get Maxwell out fast during the drink break, but that was ridiculous.”
As the series stands India won 2 and Australia won 1 out of the 5 matches. Australia still has matches to make a comeback and now after winning the last match, the series has become more interesting to watch.