Another day, another collective performance for India and the Men in Blue ended the five-match series on a thrilling note with a close 6-run win against Australia at Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday, December 3. The Indian bowlers didn't have a huge total to defend, 160, but regular wickets and some impressive death bowling from Mukesh Kumar and Arshdeep Singh, in particular, who bowled the last over, helped the Men in Blue clinch the series 4-1 after Shreyas Iyer's 8th fifty in the format got the side to a respectable score.
Travis Head began in style for Australia once again before Mukesh Kumar got the first wicket in the form of Josh Philippe. After that it was Ravi Bishnoi show once again, who took two wickets in as many overs, including the big one of Head. Ben McDermott then held one end up and since the required rate wasn't an issue, he kept getting boundaries at regular intervals and Tim David played his part nicely.
India needed a wicket and Axar Patel, who has had his tails up for a couple of games in a row, broke the partnership by dismissing David. McDermott continued his merry run and brought up his second T20I fifty before Arshdeep dismissed him to bring his side back into the game.
Mukesh Kumar then got a couple of wickets in two balls to make the game interesting before Matthew Wade hit a flurry of boundaries in a sea-saw game to keep his side in the match but eventually an excellent final over from Arshdeep did the job for his side as India prevailed by six runs.
Earlier, it was Shreyas Iyer's fifty and Axar Patel's late cameo that helped India get to a respectable score of 160. It wasn't a usual M Chinnaswamy surface in Bengaluru as it was two-paced and the ball was gripping in the wicket. The lack of runs from the middle-order was probably a fair reflection and hence Iyer's innings and Axar's 31 off 20 eventually proved to be crucial.
Australia would have felt hard done by the scoreline given they were there in all the games and gave a tough fight to the Indians team.
