Sydney : Australia won the final T20 versus India by 12 runs to give themselves a consolation victory after the series was sealed by India in the second match. India won the toss and just like the previous match they chose to field first.

The australian openers Wade and Finch had contrasting starts as one got away with a flier and the captain was out for nought. Wade provided a similar treatment to Chahar and Sundar like he did in the previous game. Smith was given a lifeline by Rahul when he missed a stumping chance but the right-handed batsman had to depart soon after.

A lot of things did not go in India’s favour. Part of it was ordinary cricket and part of it was bad luck. Chahal dismissed Maxwell on a no-ball which proved costly to India and his bowling figures. Also, when Wade was batting, he missed a straight delivery on his legs and India did appeal but the umpire turned it down. In a likely situation India would go for the review but here, the broadcaster already displayed the replay of that delivery on the big screen during the fifteen seconds when India had to decide if they wanted to take the review or not. The umpire told Kohli that they could not go for the review and when they showed it on television, the ball was pitching in line, impact included and was hitting the stumps which means Wade was out. Eventually, he scored 80. Maxwell too was dropped on 38 by Chahar at deep point and he did score a fifty after that. Australia gave a target of 187 to India.

Image courtesy @icc

India could have gone hard at them in the begining because the series was already in the bag and the target to be achieved was big. Rahul was out to maxwell on 0 and then there was a bit of a partnership between Shikhar and Virat which recovered India on the path to the target. Australian spinners Swepson and Zampa were very crucial to their success as they picked up wickets at times when they needed them. Shikhar was out as soon as the powerplay was over. Samson, the new man took his time initially by dealing in ones and twos but after that he decided to loft one straight to long-on. Iyer was LBW on his first delivery that he faced which was against Zampa. The middle-order woes for India looked like that.

All this while, Virat was in the best of form playing according to the required run-rate. When Hardik was batting alongside him India did have a chance of making it to the finish line but after his wicket it was Australia’s game to lose from and when Virat was dismissed for 85, that was the end of the match.

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