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
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
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.
India need five off five now
India need five off six and Tye's going to have to work overtime to save Australia here
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"
The left-arm spinner spoke of needing to dig deep after being collared for 55 runs in Brisbane, and the satisfaction of bouncing back against the same opponents
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
Starc, who has not played a T20I since 2016, has been drafted into the side as India look to level the T20I series in Sydney