On Thursday, November 6, India defeated Australia by a big margin of 48 runs in the fourth T20I to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series at the Carrara Oval in Carrara. After Australia managed to restrict
India to 167-run total, their batting lineup were never quite in contention in front of the Indian spin trio of Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy, and Washington Sundar sharing six wickets among themselves.
Earlier, Suryakumar Yadav, the captain of India, won the toss and decided to bat first on a Carrara Oval pitch which he thought looked a bit subcontinental in nature. India got off to yet another fast start with their explosive opener Abhishek Sharma going after the bowling from the beginning, sharing a 56-run opening stand with Shubman Gill before leg spinner Adam Zampa put an end to his innings of 28 runs in 21 balls with three fours and one six in the seventh over.
Gill was joined by Dube in the middle and these two found it tough to score boundaries consistently despite a massive six out of the ground from the latter on the bowling of Zampa. Nathan Ellis dismissed Dube for 22 off 18 with a clean up job if there ever was one before following it up with the same to Gill, sending him back to the pavilion post a laboured innings of 46 off 39 with four fours and one six.
From 121/2 in 14 overs, India found themselves staring down the barrel, losing four middle order wickets in quick succession, including Gill and captain Suryakumar Yadav. But then, a late flurry of boundaries from Washington Sundar (12 off 7) and Axar Patel (21* off 11) ensured that India reached 167/8 total in their allotted 20 overs after Zampa and Ellis took three wickets each while the latter became the fifth Australian bowler to take 50 T20I wickets in Carrara.
In pursuit of the 168-run target, Matt Short hit a few lusty blows after being promoted to the top of the order, scoring 25 off 19 with two fours and two sixes before Axar Patel dismissed him lbw thanks to the excellent usage of DRS from captain Suryakumar Yadav. Australia reached 48/1 in six overs with Josh Inglis taking over the intent of scoring quickly while their captain Mitchell Marsh focused more on staying in the middle.
The big moment in the contest happened when Marsh went for a big one on Varun Chakravarthy’s bowling in the eighth over but Abhishek Sharma, who had grabbed hold of the ball momentarily, couldn’t complete the catch as it popped out when his elbows hit the ground. Inglis wasn’t able to last long at his end in his attempt to bash the ball, getting cleaned up by Axar Patel for 12 off 11 with two fours.
Against the run of play, Shivam Dube got the big scalp of Mitchell Marsh for 30 off 24 with four fours to bring India right back into the match by reducing Australia to 70/3 in the 10th over. Shortly after, the right-arm medium pacer also got the better of fellow big man Tim David after getting hit to the roof of the Carrara Oval, which kept the contest firmly in the balance heading towards its business end.
Josh Philippe and Glenn Maxwell didn’t last long at the crease, losing their wickets to Arshdeep Singh and Varun Chakravarthy to leave Australia 103/6 in 15 overs with only Marcus Stoinis at the crease as the last recognised batter. Washington Sundar was brought into the attack and he trapped Stoinis in front of the stumps lbw for 17 off 18 to put India in a winning position, needing to defend 51 runs in 20 balls with three wickets to take.
Australia were eventually bundled out for 119 runs in 18.2 overs with Sundar registering figures of 3-3 in 1.2 overs.
