Sports Desk
Sydney: Glenn Maxwell’s fireworks with the bat and Mitchell Swepson’s brilliant display of leg-spin bowling led Australia to a consolation victory in the final T20I of the series by 12 runs at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).
The visitors take the T20I series 2-1 but Australia has broken their winning streak of ten matches.
Earlier, Matthew Wade and Maxwell guided Australia to 186 for five after put into bat by Indian skipper Virat Kohli.
Wade (80) hit his highest T20 score while Maxwell smashed 54 off 36 balls. They both added 90 for the third wicket.
Skipper Aaron Finch, back in the side from injury, was removed by Washington Sunday for naught while Steve Smith made 24 off 23. Sundar took 2-34 while Thangarasu Natarajan and Shardul Thakur claimed one each.
India lost K.L. Rahul on the second ball of the inning off Glenn Maxwell as he hit straight into the hands of Smith at mid-wicket.
Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli rescued a bad start by positing a 74-run stand off 49 balls. The 27-year-old Swepson sparked in the middle overs by removing their three main batsmen Dhawan (28), Sanju Samson (10), Shreyas Iyer (0). Swepson finished with figures of 3/23.
The Star of the second game, Hardik Pandya couldn’t trouble the Aussies as he was dismissed by Adam Zampa. He made 20 off 13 which included a four and two sixes.
Kohli tried his best to take India home but a brilliant catch by Daniel Sams at backward point tarnished India’s dream of clean sweeping Australia at their own backyard.
Kohli played a relatively slow knock in the context of the run chase as he made 85 off 61 balls, powered by four boundaries and three sixes.
Swepson was awarded player of the match while Pandya was awarded player of the series.
Both teams will now take on each other in the first Test of the four-match series at Adelaide on December 17.
