IND vs AUS, 4th T20I: Rinku Singh, Axar Patel Shine as India Beat Australia by 20 Runs to Seal Series – News18

Rinku Singh’s 46 and Axar Patel’s 3/16 helped India seal the five-match series with a clinical 29-run win over Australia in the fourth T20I at Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium, Raipur. The triumph on Friday ensured  India took an unassailable 3-1 lead with a match left in the series.

India produced a collective effort on the field while defending the 175-run target as Australia were restricted to 154/7 as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals.

Axar spun his web around the Aussie batters on a tricky surface as he returned with the match-winning figures of 3/16. Apart from him, comeback man Deepak Chahar claimed a couple of wickets.

Australia skipper Matthew Wade fought hard for his team till the end but his valiant 36-run* knock was not enough for the visitors to level the series.

In-form Travis Head (31) gave Australia a brisk start but he failed to capitalise on that and was dismissed by Axar after that India kept on taking wickets at regular intervals.

Earlier, Rinku Singh and Jitesh Sharma, who was playing his first game of the series, played fine knocks to pull India to 174/9 in 20 overs.

Rinku batted brilliantly under pressure and hit boundaries at a regular intervals when things got a bit tricky for India in the middle overs.

His 46-run knock was laced with 4 fours and 2 sixes and the maximums were the highlight of the innings – first was a reverse sweep and second a 100-meter monstrous maximum.

Jitesh also impressed on his first outing in the series as he hit a 19-ball 35, in Raipur.

The duo shared a 56-run stand in the middle-overs which stabilized the things for the hosts as they got back to the game after quick wickets of Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav and Ruturaj Gaikwad.

Dwarshuis took two wickets in the 19th over and fellow left-arm quick Behrendorff also struck twice in the next over to deny Rinku his fifty and check India’s surge.

Hardie began with a maiden over and in his second over cut short Yashasvi Jaiswal’s brisk knock of 37 off 28 balls after the left-hander mistimed a pull to get caught at mid-on.

Leg-spinner Tanveer Sangha sent back Shreyas Iyer for eight and left-arm quick Ben Dwarshuis made the hosts slip to 63-3 when he got skipper Suryakumar Yadav caught behind for one.

Ruturaj Gaikwad, who made 32 after his unbeaten 123 in the previous match, and Rinku put on a quick 48-run stand, which was broken by Sangha.