🏏India vs Australia, 5th T20I: Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru 🏏 - Page 24

India 4 -- 1 Australia! The hosts have defended 160 on a track where stroke-making wasn't easy.

Shreyas Iyer top-scored with 53 and cameos from Jitesh & Axar helped India post a competitive total on the board. In reply, Travis Head wasted little time to get going. He kicked off the chase with three successive boundaries to put the Indian bowlers under pressure. Despite losing Philippe cheaply, Australia got off to a blazing start scoring 40 runs off the first four overs which forced SKY to turn to spin.

India 4 -- 1 Australia! The hosts have defended 160 on a track where stroke-making wasn't easy. Shreyas Iyer top-scored with 53 and cameos from Jitesh & Axar helped India post a competitive total on the board. In reply, Travis Head wasted little time to get going. He kicked off the chase with three successive boundaries to put the Indian bowlers under pressure. Despite losing Philippe cheaply, Australia got off to a blazing start scoring 40 runs off the first four overs which forced SKY to turn to spin. Ravi Bishnoi conceded a six off his fourth ball with Head dispatching him over deep midwicket, but the wrist-spinner got his revenge off his very next ball as he castled the dangerman. The scoring rate dipped significantly as the spinners applied the brakes bowling six overs on the bounce.

I think there weresome wrong decisions against Australia in last over

First ball need to have been a wide/no ball (maybe latter it was over head height) and then second last ball got blocked by the umpire(unintentionally) that would have been a 4

This was only unlucky loss for Australia

Congratulations to Team India on winning the match

At the halfway stage, Australia were 70/3 and they managed to score 21 runs off the following two overs. Axar broke the 47-run stand in his final over to finish with impressive figures of 4-0-14-1. McDermott brought up his fifty with a six but fell to a low full toss in the very same over. Mukesh Kumar bowled a superb 17th over where he picked back-to-back wickets. But Wade kept his team in the hunt by hitting a hat-trick of fours against Avesh Khan in the 18th over. Mukesh Kumar bowled a decent penultimate over and the visitors needed 10 off the final over. The first ball of the final over should have been wided but wasn't and Wade lost his cool. Perished a couple of balls later did the Australian skipper and Arshdeep completed the formalities.The left-arm speedster, who had conceded 37 runs off his first 3 overs, gave away just 3 runs in the final over to seal the match

Shreyas Iyer: Elated to see everyone chipping in and the way these guys stood up from game one, especially in the batting department is mesmerising to see. I could see the calmness in him (Arshdeep) when he was bowling the last over, kudos to the way he composed himself. When I saw 3 wickets falling down, I started to calculate what would be the best score on this wicket and it wasn't an easy wicket to bat on, and whenever we find ourselves in such a situation it is important to assess the conditions and bat accordingly, today was the right example of how we did it as a team. 160 was the right total, it's a commendable total especially after losing 4 wickets at the top and bowlers did a good job in restricting them.

Friends, we have been constantly interacting with each other for the past four months. In between, the World Cup, prior to that, Test series, one-day matches, and now T20I. We are delighted to have spent some quality time with you all.

Now, in this month, there will be WPL auctions next week, and later, men's IPL auctions will take place.

Let us meet soon.

Arshdeep Singh: I was thinking that I gave away too many runs (in the first three overs) and was hoping for another chance, and thanks to God, I defended it and also thanks to the staff that they believed in me. Surya (before bowling the final over) told me whatever happens, happens, and credit goes to the batters as well. We had a cushion of 15-20 runs and it was definitely more than par. According to the standards we have set as an Indian team, it was not near par (speaking about his performances in this series) but there are a lot of learnings to take and hoping to come back stronger.

Pace vs spin in Australia’s chase

Pace: 12-0-111-5 | ER: 9.25

Spin: 8-0-43-3 | ER: 5.375