IND vs AUS: 4th T20I Review – India bag series win in Raipur
India and Australia locked horns in the fourth T20I in Raipur on Friday, December 1. The series was intriguingly poised at 2-1 in favour of the hosts and Australia needed a win to take it to the fifth and final T20I.
Matthew Wade won the toss and opted to bowl first, keeping the dew factor in mind. Yashasvi Jaiswal got India off to a flying start once again before departing for a 28-ball 37. Shreyas Iyer didn’t have a memorable outing as he was dismissed for eight. While, Suryakumar Yadav also followed soon after as Ruturaj Gaikwad and Rinku Singh resurrected the innings.
They formed a 48-run partnership off 31 balls before Gaikwad departed for 32. At 111/4 in 13.2 overs, India needed a partnership and it came from the duo of Rinku and Jitesh Sharma. The latter, playing his first game of the series, took the attack to the Aussie bowlers. On the other hand, Rinku also found the boundaries at regular intervals. They stitched a crucial 56-run partnership of 32 balls to take India to 167 in the 19th over. However, the home side lost five wickets in the last nine balls of their innings to finish on 174/9.
In reply, Travis Head cut loose early in the innings and helped Australia put on 40 runs in the first three overs. Suryakumar went to his spinners and they delivered commendably. Ravi Bishnoi and Axar Patel bowled four overs between them and picked up four wickets for just 12 runs.
Tim David and Ben McDermott tried to build a partnership but they couldn’t get the momentum. Matthew Short played some good shots but he could not bat as fluently as he would have liked. Deepak Chahar picked up a couple of important wickets in his second spell after being expensive with the new ball. In the end, Matthew Wade was left with too much to do as India won by 20 runs to take an unassailable 3-1 lead in the series.
Top Performers of the Match
Rinku Singh (46 off 29): India had to three wickets for just 13 runs when the southpaw came out to bat. He counter-attacked well and formed a fantastic partnership with Jitesh Sharma. Rinku anchored the innings and also played some audacious strokes. His 46-run knock off 29 balls was studded with four fours and two sixes.
Axar Patel (3/16, 4 overs): Axar dismissed the dangerous Travis Head in his first over and didn’t look back. He also got rid of Ben McDermott and Aaron Hardie and finished with excellent figures of 3/16 in his four overs.
What’s Next The teams will meet one last time in this series on Sunday, December 3 in Bengaluru.
