Match Report
Aus vs Ind (Third T20I): Virat Kohli guided India for the series-saving victory
By Sandy - Nov 25, 2018 5:50 pm
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Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s brilliant guidance helped India to win the third and final T20I of the series at Sydney on Sunday and drew the series by 1-1 result. While Australia scored 164/6 in 20 overs, India reached the target in 19.4 overs after losing four wickets (168/4).

Virat
Virat Kohli played a match-winning knock of unbeaten 61 off 41 balls

Australian skipper Aaron Finch decided to bat first after winning the toss. The Aussie openers provided a solid start as D’Arcy Short and the skipper Aaron Finch had a 68-run partnership for that wicket.

However, after that partnership was broken, the Australian team lost their wickets at regular intervals. Finch was caught out at short fine leg on 28 off 23 balls (4 fours) while Short followed him quickly after scoring 33 off 29 balls (5 fours).

Australia’s last match batting hero Ben McDermott scored a golden duck while Glenn Maxwell failed to utilise after he came up the batting order at no.3 but managed to score only 13 runs. The wicketkeeper-batsman Alex Carey played an important knock of 27 runs off 19 balls. Chris Lynn was sent to bat at down the order at no.6 but he was brilliantly run-out by Bumrah at the crucial situation.

From 131/6 in 17.2 overs, Australia finished the innings on 164/6 (20 overs), thanks to the unbroken 33-run partnership for the seventh wicket between Marcus Stoinis and Nathan Coulter-Nile. Stoinis played a 25-run knock 15 balls (3 fours) while Coulter-Nile managed to score 13 off 7 balls (2 fours).

Among the Indian bowlers, only the two left-arm spinners Krunal Pandya and Kuldeep Yadav were able to pick up the wickets in that innings. Krunal was the best bowler in that innings by picking up four wickets with the bowling figure of 4-0-36-4. Also, the chinaman Kuldeep claimed the first wicket of the innings (Finch’s dismissal) and ended with the bowling figure of 4-0-19-1.

Krunal Pandya picked up four wickets in Sydney T20I

Also watch: Krunal Pandya Takes Two In Two

In reply, India started very well as the openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan provided an attacking 67-run partnership for the first wicket. But after that partnership was broken, the next batsmen struggled against the Aussie bowlers in the middle overs. Dhawan scored 41 off 22 balls (6 fours and 2 sixes) while Rohit played 23 runs knock off 16 balls (only four and 2 sixes).

Also watch: Rohit And Dhawan Puts Australian bowlers On Remand

Soon after those openers’ dismissals, KL Rahul (14 off 20 balls) and Rishabh Pant (0) returned to the pavilion in disappointing fashions. In that stage, India was struggling on 108/4. However, the skipper Virat Kohli rescued the team from that stage with the help of a brilliant unbroken 60-run partnership with Dinesh Karthik for the fifth wicket and secured the series-saving victory. Kohli was not out on 61 off 41 balls (4 fours and 2 sixes) while Karthik remained unbeaten on 22 off 18 balls (only four and only six) as India reached the target in 19.4 overs after losing four wickets.

Kohli
Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik after securing the victory

Among the Aussie bowlers, Mitchell Starc (1/26), Adam Zampa (1/22), Glenn Maxwell (1/25) and Andrew Tye (1/32) all picked up one wicket each.

While the series finished with the 1-1 scoreline, Krunal Pandya won the Player of the Match award while Shikhar Dhawan won the Player of the Series award.

Here are some Twitter reactions:

 

https://twitter.com/brainfadesmith/status/1066652006486425600

https://twitter.com/brainfadesmith/status/1066653771055357952

https://twitter.com/SivanthiR/status/1066654064811753477

https://twitter.com/DarnMySecret12/status/1066662867053744128

Tags Australian cricket teamDinesh KarthikIndia tour of Australia 2018/19Indian cricket teamKrunal PandyaShikhar DhawanT20I seriesThird T20Ivirat kohli

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