Player of the Match
Player of the Match
2189dThe Report by Andrew McGlashan in Sydney

Australia fall short as Kohli, Krunal level series

In front of a record SCG T20I crowd of 37,339, India levelled the series on the back of a fine performance by their spinners and another chasing masterclass from Virat Kohli

Match Centre

Statistics

Best performances - Batsmen

V Kohli
V Kohli
61(41) 4x4 - 2x6
Control %78%
  • Productive Shot
  • flick
  • 24 runs
  • 0x4 - 1x6
4 1 3 11 2 6 11 23
S Dhawan
S Dhawan
41(22) 6x4 - 2x6
Control %79%
  • Productive Shot
  • cover drive
  • 12 runs
  • 3x4 - 0x6
0 1 0 4 14 4 6 12

Best performances - Bowlers

KH Pandya
KH Pandya
O4
M0
R36
W4
Eco9.00
RHB
OFFLEG
1W
1W
  • FTFULL TOSS
  • YYORKER
  • FFULL LENGTH
  • GGOOD LENGTH
  • SGSHORT OF GOOD LENGTH
  • SSHORT LENGTH
LHB
LEGOFF
2W
Kuldeep Yadav
Kuldeep Yadav
O4
M0
R19
W1
Eco4.75
RHB
OFFLEG
1W
  • FTFULL TOSS
  • YYORKER
  • FFULL LENGTH
  • GGOOD LENGTH
  • SGSHORT OF GOOD LENGTH
  • SSHORT LENGTH
LHB
LEGOFF

Scorer: @Thilak_Rama | Commentator: Alex Malcolm

That concludes this T20 series. India clearly the better side tonight and probably unlucky with the weather in Melbourne not to win the series 2-1. Now we move on to the Test matches. India play a tour game against the Cricket Australia XI starting on Wednesday at the SCG. The Australian Test squad with the exception of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood will play in Shield matches starting on Monday and Tuesday. The first Test starts in Adelaide on December 6.

On behalf of Alagappan Muthu and all the team it's goodbye from the SCG.

10.30 pm Krunal Pandya is Man of the Match for his 4 for 36. "Obviously it feels really great to contribute in a winning side. I had to back myself after that first game. It feels good to overcome those type of hurdles."

"The best part of team India is they back all of the players whether you are doing well or poorly."

Shikhar Dhawan is Player of the Series. Two excellent innings in Brisbane and Sydney. He gets the crowd cheering. "I enjoy entertaining people and I enjoy playing entertaining cricket. Great to get such support from India supporters here. It's good that we could draw this series and ending on a winning note."

Aaron Finch: "I think they batted extremely well in the powerplay. We had a bit of a moment of madness when we lost a couple of wickets in our innings. I thought Zamps and Maxy bowled brilliantly." "I thought that the guys had a plan and unfortunately we didn't execute in the middle overs there. I think there's still a fair bit of work to do but there's positive signs. I'm feeling really good. Looking forward to getting up to Brisbane (for the Shield game)."

Virat Kohli: "Things become pretty easy when those two guys play like that at the top. I think DK showed great composure at the death along with me stringing a partnership to get us home. I think Maxy and Zampa bowled very well. I thought overall, skill wise we were better than Australia."

"I thought with the ball we were more professional today. I thought it was 180 type of wicket. Those 15 runs less were crucial. A level series is a great show of how the teams have played."

Bharath Seervi: Virat Kohli has remained not out 14 times when chasing in T20Is and India won the match every time.

Kaushik: "Kohli's innings reminded of his chase in the world T20 semis in Mohali. What a player! "

Maaren: "Not to forget Dk. He is slowly earning the name of a finisher.."

10.15 pm This chase was put to bed in the first five overs, with Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan running amok. Australia couldn't hit a single six today, but those two were smoking every other ball out of the ground. But Mitchell Starc, playing his first T20I in two years - his first at home in four - got that first wicket with his searing pace. That strike helped his team-mates settle down and take the game deep. In the end though, as disciplined as Adam Zampa was, and as cleverly as Andrew Tye played, they couldn't get Virat Kohli out. And in a chase, that usually means one thing. India win.

19.4
4
Tye to Kohli, FOUR, swings it out to the vacant areas around midwicket and celebrates with arms aloft. India level the series
19.3
4
Tye to Kohli, FOUR, thumps it down the ground. It's a half-volley, in Kohli's swinging arc, and he hammers it away. He's pumped. He's punching the air. He's sensing the series going level
19.2
0
Tye to Kohli, no run, is that not a wide, asks Kohli, after he doesn't make contact with another short, slower ball outside off

India need five off five now

19.1
0
Tye to Kohli, no run, beats him with a slower ball that Kohli swings across the line and misses completely

India need five off six and Tye's going to have to work overtime to save Australia here

END OF OVER:
19 | 11 Runs | IND: 160/4 (5 runs required from 6 balls, RR: 8.42, RRR: 5.00)

  • Dinesh Karthik22 (18b)
  • Virat Kohli53 (37b)
  • Mitchell Starc4-0-26-1
  • Andrew Tye3-0-24-1

Anirudh: "Stop with this "filling in dhoni's shoes" crap... one plaher cannot be replaced by another...not sachin, not dhoni, not anyone... its replaced by the team collective... and that looks currently better than with dhoni in the squad...give the kids more than a few games to learn"

18.6
2
Starc to Karthik, 2 runs, walks across outside off and ends up too far away from the short ball outside leg. In the end, he just about gets to it with a pull through square leg
18.5
1
Starc to Kohli, 1 run, pulls the short ball from outside off to deep square leg

India 2nd innings Partnerships

WktRunsPlayers
1st67S DhawanRG Sharma
2nd0RG SharmaV Kohli
3rd41V KohliKL Rahul
4th0V KohliRR Pant
5th60KD KarthikV Kohli