No whitewash in the end, but good game of cricket today. The momentum swung both sides but ultimately went towards the Aussies. The match began with India winning the toss again and opting to bowl first. The Men in blue came unchanged as expected while Finch was back as captain for Australia replacing Stoinis who was unfit. Matthew Wade opened with Finch and gave an amazing start to Australia just like he did in the second T20. Finch who was making a comeback got out early to Sundar while trying to hit him big. After that Smith and Wade batted together and made a partnership of 65 runs, Wade was in full aggressive mode and was batting ruthlessly, he spared no one, while Smith was playing run a ball kind of innings. Sundar got the better of him in the 10th over. In came Maxwell who got a lifeline earlier in the innings when he got caught out to Chahal in the 13th over but it was called a no ball as Chahal had overstepped. After that he never turned back. Wade and Maxi created an excellent partnership of 90 runs for the fourth wicket. Both played with a strike rate of 150 and registered half centuries. Maxwell was dropped three times during his innings. This sums the standard of Indian fielding in this series. Wade got out on 80 in the 19th over to Thakur while Maxi was departed in the last over by Natarajan while he was batting on 54 runs. Australia ended with a score of 186 in 20 overs. Indian chase began with a disaster as Rahul got out to Maxwell on the second ball of the very first over for a duck while trying to hit him over deep mid wicket where Smith took a sitter. Dhawan and Kohli then revived the chase and constructed the Indian innings together. India looked well settled in the chase and stood at 74-0 in the 9th over, when Dhawan lost his wicket to Swepson. After that, wickets fell in regular intervals, first Samson got out on 10 who is a big disappointment for India in this series, and then Iyer got LBW on his first ball to Swepson who had an amazing day with the ball and took 3 wickets in the whole match. 87 runs were required in 7 overs with an asking rate of more than 12. Kohli was the lone warrior who was fighting at one end while wickets kept falling on the other end. Hardik joined him in the 13th over and hit two sixes which changed the whole momentum of the match. The equation was 43 runs off 18 balls, which is very much gettable in this age and time. But Pandya was unfortunate to mistime a slog off Zampa's delivery, and got out caught in the pre penultimate over. The pressure followed on Virat too and he succumbed to it in the 19th over. After that it was a dead rubber even though Shardul striked 2 sixes but they were not enough as India lost the match by 12 runs. So both one day and t20 series ended 2-1 with Australia and India winning them respectively. Now all eyes will be on the test series which is starting from next week and will commence with a pink ball Day/Night match in Adelaide.
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