India vs Australia 5th T20I: Bowlers put up a stellar show as India pulls a win in last-over thriller

India vs Australia 5th T20I: Indian bowlers have successfully defended a low score on turf like Chinnaswamy, Bengaluru, winning the game by 6 runs. A combined effort by the spinners and seamers has helped the young Indian team to win the series by 4-1 against Australia. With the spinner-duo of Axar Patel and Bishnoi taking the top wickets with economical spells, timely wickets by Mukesh Kumar and Arshdeep Singh restricted Australia from winning the game comfortably.

Axar Patel went for just 14 runs in his 4 overs, taking a wicket. His partner Ravi Bishnoi took 2 wickets for just 29 runs. While for seamers, it was Mukesh Kumar, whose back-to-back wickets and overall spell of 3 for 32 put India back in the game. It was Arshdeep Singh, whose composure in the last over made him defend 10 runs comfortably against the Australian captain Wade.

For Australia, Head and Short got a start, but couldn’t capitalise it, while McDermott scored a fine innings of 54 runs. Captain Wade couldn’t contribute much to the cause and choked to accomplish a favourable result. He could have easily carried Australia home.

Earlier, disciplined bowling by Australia restricted India to 160 at the loss of eight wickets. The score is below par, keeping in mind the previous games played at this venue. Australia did not let any Indian batsmen settle and cause any damage to them. They took three wickets in the partnership and did not let India score freely.

For India, Shreyas Iyer was the exception with his responsible batting, scoring 53 in just 37 balls. For Australia, every bowler took at least one wicket. However, Hardie and Sangha were the most economical bowlers.

After an extended stay and an exhausting long tour of India spanning from late September to early December, travelling across the country and a successful World Cup campaign, Australia are playing the last game here in India. The final edition of the five-game series occurs at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.

Earlier, Australia had won the toss and asked India to bat first. They introduced Nathan Ellis, and benched Chris Green in the game. India brought in Arshdeep Singh in place of Deepak Chahar. India has not yet tried Washington Sundar in the entire series.

India’s Playing XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Shreyas Iyer. Suryakumar Yadav, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan

Australia: Josh Philippe, Travis Head, Ben McDermott, Aaron Hardie, Tim David, Matt Short, Matthew Wade (c) (wk), Ben Dwarhuis, Nathan Ellis, Jason Behrendorff, Tanveer Sangha