Axar Patel’s three-wicket haul helped India clinch a 20-run win against Australia in the fourth T20I match on Friday and get an invincible 3-1 lead in the five-match series.
Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: After India’s 20-run victory against Australia in the fourth T20I match at Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur on Friday, the ‘Men in Blue’ skipper Suryakumar Yadav praised his side and said that the players have shown character to seal a win. Speaking at the post-match presentation, Suryakumar revealed that in the team meeting, he asked the players to be fearless in the game. He also hailed Axar Patel and said that the way he bowled was unbelievable. “Other than toss, everything (went well). Boys showed character and that was most important for us. We spoke in the meeting before the game to go out and express yourself and be fearless. I always love putting Axar under pressure and the way he bowled was unbelievable. The plan (during the death overs) was to go for the yorkers and then see what happens,” he said.
Recapping the match, Rinku Singh (46 runs from 29 balls) and Jitesh Sharma (35 runs from 19 balls) played a solid 66-run partnership in the first inning to help India score 174 runs on the scoreboard.
Ben Dwarshuis led the Aussie bowling attack after he scalped three wickets and gave 40 runs. Meanwhile, Behrendorff and Sangha bagged two wickets each.
In the run chase, Aussie skipper Matthew Wade (36 runs from 23 balls) was the only stand-out batter for the away side but still, he could not help his team to clinch a win in the game.
Axar was named the ‘Player of the Match’ after he bagged three wickets and gave 16 runs. Deepak Chahar also picked up two wickets in the game and helped India to win their third match of the series.