Suryakumar Yadav-led India beat Australia in the fourth T20I by 20 runs to take an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-game series. Indian spinners Axar Patel and Ravi Bishnoi troubled Australian batters as they failed to chase down the target of 175 in Raipur on December 1. In the absence of Glenn Maxwell, their middle order crumbled and lost the match comprehensively.ย
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Earlier, Wade won the toss and opted to field first. Aaron Hardie started off with a maiden over. Yashasvi Jaiswal broke free in the third over hitting Bend Dwarshuis for three boundaries. Ruturaj Gaikwad faced his first ball of the innings in the fourth over. He got off the mark with a boundary. Jaiswal hit the first six of the innings in the fifth over. On the last ball of the powerplay overs, Hardie got the wicket of Jaiswal. He scored 37 runs from 28 balls including six fours and a six. Playing his first T20I since return, Shreyas Iyer was dismissed for a single-digit score by Tanveer Sangha.
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Dwarshuis made up for the expensive first over with the wicket of skipper Suryakumar for a single-digit score. Gaikwad hit the first six of his knock in the 10th over. At the halfway stage, India were 79/3. Rinku Singh got going as soon as he walked out to the middle. In the 14th over, Sangha got the wicket of Gaikwad who scored a century in the previous game. The opener scored 32 runs from 28 balls including three fours and a six. Jitesh Sharma in his first game of the series took on Chris Green. The wicketkeeper-batter hit Green for two sixes in the 15th over.
India crossed the 150-run mark in the 18th over as Rinku and Jitesh continued to fire. Dwarshuis ended Jitesh's cameo in the penultimate over. He scored 35 runs from 19 including one four and three sixes. Axar Patel could not do any damage and got out for a golden duck. In the final over, Jason Behrendorff stopped Rinku from scoring a half-century. He got out lbw. The southpaw scored 46 runs from 29 balls including four fours and a couple of sixes. Deepak Chahar in his comeback game failed to make a mark with the bat as he got out for a silver duck. On the final ball, Ravi Bishnoi got run out trying to sneak a second run. Only six runs were scored off the final ball whereas three wickets fell. India could not finish well and posted 174/9 on the board.
In the run chase, Travis Head batted with a fearless approach. In the third over, he hit Chahar for four fours and a six. Bishnoi was introduced into the attack and Josh Philippe got bowled trying to play a sweep shot. In the next over, Patel got the prized wicket of Head. He scored 31 runs from 16 balls. After powerplay overs, Australia were 52/2. In Axar's next over, Hardie got bowled as he went for the sweep as well. After three quiet overs, Tim David hit Avesh Khan for a six. India were 76/3 at the halfway stage. Axar in his third over struck again. This time Ben McDermott got bowled after scoring just 19 runs from 22 balls.
Matthew Short hit Mukesh Kumar for two fours in a row. In the next over, he hit Chahar for a six. Chahar came back well to dismiss David who managed to score 19 runs from 20 balls. Wade hit Mukesh for a six in the 16th over off a no-ball. However, he could not score a boundary off the free hit delivery. In the 17th over, Chahar got the wicket of Short. He scored 22 runs from 19 balls. Australia needed 47 runs from the last three overs. In the 18th over, Wade started off with a boundary off Avesh. Ben Dwarshuis could not repeat what Wade did and got bowled as his off stump went for a walk.
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Wade tried to revive the run chase alone. He hit Mukesh for a boundary off the first ball of the penultimate over. Mukesh came back well and did not concede a single boundary for the rest of the over. Avesh had 31 runs to defend in the final over. Wade managed to hit a six off the fourth ball. He remained unbeaten for 36 off 23 balls as Australia managed to post 154/7, losing the match by 20 runs.
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