Australia earned a consolation win by defeating India in the final T20I by 12 runs.
India lost their first T20I in exactly a year, and first away T20I since February 2019, after Australia salvaged some pride by winning the last match of the series by 12 runs at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Tuesday (December 8). India took home the trophy by winning the three-match series 2-1.
Indian captain Virat Kohli won the toss and asked Australia to bat first, and the hosts put up a strong total of 186/5 on the board with Matthew Wade (80) and Glenn Maxwell (54) scoring half-centuries. India missed several opportunities to break their partnership of 90 runs for the third wicket, and were left to rue the slip-ups later.
With the bat, it was expected India would get to the target after their stupendous chase of 195 in the second T20I, but except Virat Kohli (85) no batsman could adjust to the wicket which kept slowing up as the game went on. Mitchell Swepson, who was a late addition to Australia's squad for the series, took 3/23 and was named Man-of-the-Match as India finished with 174/7.
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For India, it was still a successful series, as they recorded their third T20I series victory of the year and finished with 9 wins from 10 completed matches. The players were jubilant as expected after the conclusion of the series, and took to Twitter to share pictures and messages about the triumph. Here are the tweets: