India fought back in style and won the 3rd T20I in Sydney by 6 wickets to level the three match T20 series 1-1 courtesy of a rain washed match in Melbourne. In a batting friendly conditions, Australian captain Aaron Finch won the match and surprisingly opted to bat first.
Australian innings
The men in gold and green started on a positive note as skipper Aaron Finch(28 off 23) and D Arcy Short(33 off 29) added 68 runs for the 1st wicket. After the departure of Finch, aggressive batsman Glenn Maxwell(13 off 16 balls) came to bat at number 3.
The partnership between Maxwell and Short could not last longer as the latter batsman was soon dismissed by Krunal Pandya. The senior Pandya went onto dismiss Ben McDermott(0 off 1 ball) on the very next ball but was unable to bag a hattrick.
Wicket-keeper batsman Alex Carey and Marcus Stoinis’ last over flourish gave the right momentum to Australia as the hosts finished on 164/6 after the quota of 20 overs.
Krunal Pandya was the pick of the bowlers by picking 4 wickets and conceding 36 runs. Kuldeep Yadav bagged one wicket.
India innings
The Indian openers started with a cautious approach and went onto add 67 runs for the 1st wicket before Dhawan was dismissed on 41 off 22 balls. Spin duo of Adam Zampa and Glenn Maxwell tried to brought back Australia in the game by dismissing Rohit Sharma(23 off 16 balls), Rishabh Pant(0 off 1 ball) and KL Rahul (14 off 20 balls).
India was in some sort of bother with Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik having all the responsibilities to take the visitors home. The experienced duo showed some patience and punished the bad balls to take the game close.
In the last four overs, both the batters fired with all guns blazing and finished the match with 2 balls remaining. Virat scored 61 runs off just 41 balls and Dinesh Karthik scored 22 runs off 18 balls.
Awards
Krunal Pandya was adjudged the man of the match for his figures of 4/36.
Shikhar Dhawan was adjudged the man of the series for being the highest run getter in the series.
