The one-man batting show from the captain Kohli couldn’t deliver a whitewash in Australia as the hosts defeated India in the final T20I by 12 runs. It was India's only T20I loss in 2020 and this defeat came after 10 consecutive wins in the shorter format.
Toss: Indian opted to field first
Venue: Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney
Team News: Aaron Finch comes in (Australia)
India were unchanged
Detailed Report
First innings:
Australia lost its skipper on the duck as Sundar struck in his first over. Smith joined Wade and constructed the innings. Australia finished powerplay on 51/1. In the 10th over, KL Rahul missed the stumping of Steve Smith but Sundar bowled him out to provide a big breakthrough. Wade completed his third T20I half-century. Kohli missed the review when Natarajan got Wade out. Luck favoured Australia in Maxwell’s case as well. KL Rahul took an easy catch to dismiss Maxwell on 19 but Chahal bowled a no-ball and Australia avoided another big blow.
Sanju Samson pulled off a stunning dive on the boundary line to save a six. Wade and Maxwell continued the acceleration in middle-overs. Glenn Maxwell smashed another half-century off just 31 balls. Shardul picked the big wicket of Mathew Wade to break the 90-runs stand. The Aussie wicketkeeper scored his best T20I score with 80 off 53 balls. Natarajan got Maxwell with a brilliant delivery and with losing two set-batsmen in successive overs, Australia failed to get 190. In the last 5 overs, India conceded 47 runs and Australia finished on 186.
2nd innings:
Finch started with the spin and Maxwell trapped KL Rahul on two-balls duck. Kohli joined Shikhar Dhawan and India formed a good partnership. In powerplay, India scored 55 runs, losing one wicket. Swepson broke the 74-runs stand as Daniel Sams picked a stunning catch to dismiss Dhawan on 28. At the halfway mark of the chase, India was 82/2 and they required 105 in the last ten.
Finch continued the spin from both ends to control runs and put pressure on the batting side. Virat Kohli completed his 25th T20I half-century off 41 balls. The tight bowling from Zampa and Swepson controlled the game for Australia. The pressure gave Swepson another wicket as Samson got out on 10 in search of a boundary. On the next ball, Smith repeated a great dive to save a boundary. Shreyas Iyer couldn’t provide support to Kohli and got out on a duck. Swepson finished his bowling spell with three wickets for 23. India required 75 runs off the last 5 with Kohli and Pandya in middle. In the next two overs, India got 33 runs but lost Pandya in the 18th over after 13-balls 21. Australia got Virat Kohli after scoring 85 to break all the hopes for India. Australia finally broke India's 10-matches winning streak in the T20s.
Star-performer of the match
Mitchell Swepson is our star performer of the match for his match-winning spell in this match. The leg-break bowler controlled the runs in middle-overs and changed the momentum of the game. He picked dangerous Shikhar Dhawan to break the 74-runs stand. In his final over, he scalped Samson and Iyer to script a turnaround in this match.
5 players who made an impact in this game:
Mathew Wade 80 (53)
Glenn Maxwell 54 (36)
Washington Sundar 4-0-34-2
Virat Kohli 85 (61)
Swepson 4-0-23-3
