🏏 Ind vs. Aus 2023: 4th T20I: Dec 01,2023, Raipur 🏏

🏏 Ind vs. Aus 2023: 4th T20I: Dec 01,2023, Raipur 🏏

India and Australia will meet in the 4th T20 of the five-match T20I series today at Raipur.

India and Australia played three matches against each other in this five-match T20I series so far, where India won two matches and is currently leading the series by 2-1.

In the third game, Australia beat India by 5 wickets. In that game, Australia won the toss and decided to field first.

Coming to bat, India posted 222 runs on the board, where Ruturaj Gaikwad hammered 123 runs for them. Kane Richardson, Jason Behrendorff, and Aaron Hardie took 1 wicket each for Australia. Australia successfully chased down the target in the last over of the game, where Glenn Maxwell added 104 runs for them. Ravi Bishnoi picked up 2 wickets for India.

With the game between two teams just a few hours away, there has been a bizarre thing that has come to notice.

The Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh Stadium in Raipur is without electricity in some crucial parts. The reason behind this has been the non-payment of the electricity bill, which has been pending since years, as per NDTV.

The stadium has a pending invoice for ₹ 3.16 crore. There has been a temporary connection in the stadium, which covers the fans’ gallery and boxes. The State Association will be using the generator to run the floodlights during the 4th India vs Australia game in Raipur.

For Australia, this match would be as much about leveling the series as it'll be about adjusting to yet another squad at their disposal

India are currently leading the series by a margin of 2-1. The young team under Suryakumar Yadav has been fantastic.

They produced an exceptional performance in the first game as they chased a mammoth total of 209 runs, which is the highest by India in T20Is.

In the second game, they bagged a 44-run win as after posting 235 runs, they restricted Australia to just 191 runs.

Australia however, made a staggering comeback in the third and made sure that the series stays alive. They chased a gigantic total of 223 runs with 5 wickets in hand.

IND vs AUS Playing 11:

India: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav ©, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Chahar, Prasidh Krishna/Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi

Australia: Matthew Short, Travis Head, Ben McDermott, Tim David, Aaron Hardie, Matthew Wade (c & wk), Chris Green, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Ellis, Tanveer Sangha, Kane Richardson

The wicket at the venue in Raipur generally supports both batters and bowlers. Though the pitch has seen a team score past 200 only once in the T20 format,

Pitch report

The wicket at the venue in Raipur generally supports both batters and bowlers. Though the pitch has seen a team score past 200 only once in the T20 format. A 200-plus total at this wicket is something which has been scored in 5 out of 6 innings in this series.

What to expect: Raipur has only hosted one international game, which was an ODI between India and New Zealand earlier this year. On that occasion, the grassy pitch led to some tennis-ball bounce and lateral movement, with India's fast bowlers exploiting the conditions to the utmost and reducing the opposition to 15/5 in a facile win. In terms of T20 matches, the last fixture here was a Syed Mustaq Ali Trophy match between Railways and Rajasthan back in 2018, so there's not a lot out there in terms of what to expect. But this venue does have big boundaries, something that the spinners can still work with once the dew has set in.

Thanks for the tag Madhu.

Imfia should win this nice and fast.

Cheers..

As the teams gear up for battle, the stakes are higher than ever for the Australians, trailing 2-1 in the series. The pressure is on, and a defeat in this fixture would mean conceding the series to India. On the other hand, a victory for the home side would secure their triumph and add another feather to their cap in what has already been an exciting series.

The cricket pitch at Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium provides an inclusive playing experience, catering to both batters and bowlers. Despite having hosted just one ODI and no T20I matches thus far, the venue has been a stage for numerous Indian Premier League (IPL), Champions League T20 (CLT20), and domestic competitions. Notably, teams batting second have tended to perform better in these matches. Moreover, as the game progresses, the pitch tends to offer more assistance to spinners, introducing an additional challenge for the batters.

Team News:

India

Shreyas Iyer, in the squad for the last two T20Is, is expected to slot right in. Mukesh Kumar has also rejoined the squad after missing the third T20I owing to personal reasons and should reclaim his place in the XI, coming most likely in place of Prasidh Krishna. That would mean Avesh Khan, who played the third T20I, keeps his place. Deepak Chahar, who has been added to the squad, is an option too.

Australia

With Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis back home, it will be a fresh-looking middle order for Australia in this game. Chris Green is in line to make his debut for Australia. Kane Richardson was unable to complete his quota of overs in the last match, due to which Glenn Maxwell had to bowl the last over. It's unclear whether Richardson is fit to play this game but in any case, Australia have enough replenishment in the squad to cover for him.

Did you know

Ruturaj is currently leading the series run-charts with 181 runs despite a diamond duck in the first match

Jason Behrendorff has conceded only 37 runs across his eight overs in the series

Three consecutive T20I scores of 200 or more is the joint most by India in the format, alongside Nepal

Guwahati was the fourth instance of two hundred being recorded in a men's T20I.

What they said

"Even though we scored 230 [in Trivandrum], we felt the match would go till the last over. So with this kind of dew, these totals are bound to happen and bound to be chased" - Ruturaj Gaikwad after the Guwahati T20I

"The boys are in good spirits, hopefully we can pinch another one in the next game and take it down to the last game" - Matthew Wade is hopeful about the Raipur T20I

How will they play without lights?

All the best to both teams.

How many runs are truly enough? That's a question that India will be looking to definitively answer in this fourth T20I against Australia in Raipur. If they had the best of conditions to pull off their highest T20I chase in Visakhapatnam, their highest-ever T20I total against Australia in Thiruvananthapuram gave them more than enough buffer.

It was in Guwahati that even a total of 222 wasn't enough, thanks to the dewy conditions in which Glenn Maxwell put India's death bowlers to the sword and helped Australia get on the board in the series.

It's been a series of flat pitches and high scores, so India won't be too overly concerned about their death bowling. Ruturaj, speaking after the third T20I, thought as much and underlined how "even 13-14 runs an over" is attainable in these conditions and the best thing to do is "accept that and move on".

That said, Prasidh Krishna's form would be in focus especially with only eight more T20Is to go before the World Cup next year. The tall pacer has returned figures of 1/50, 3/41 and 0/68 in this series, the latest being the worst-ever figures by an Indian in T20Is.

For Australia, this match would be as much about leveling the series as it'll be about adjusting to yet another squad at their disposal. Sean Abbott, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Steve Smith and Adam Zampa have all returned home after a victorious World Cup campaign, with Travis Head being the only exception.

Ben Dwarshuis, Chris Green, Ben McDermott, and Josh Philippe have replaced them in the squad and would be looking forward to some game time, not in the least because there's an IPL Auction round the corner.