Stand-in India T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav was over the moon as the Men in Blue won the fifth and final T20I against Bengaluru by 6 runs and pocketed the series 4-1. This was India’s 14th T20I series win at home in a row.
Riding on Shreyas Iyer's half-century (53 off 37 balls) and useful late cameos by Jitesh Sharma (24 off 16) and Akshar Patel (31 off 21), India posted 160/8 after being asked to bat first by Australia skipper Matthew Wade.
In the chase, Travis Head with 28 and Ben McDermott with 54 shined for Australia, but excellent bowling by India kept Australia to 154/8 and India won by 6 runs. Mukesh Kumar with 3/32 was the pick of the bowlers, while Ravi Bishnoi and Arshdeep Singh picked two scalps each.
Akshar Patel was given the Player of the Match award, while Ravi Bishnoi won the Player of the Series award.
"Everybody says T20 cricket is batsman's game. Batsmen may win you matches, but bowlers win you series. Obviously, it feels good to win the series. On top of that being a captain, it feels great. Ek naya angle aaya hai life mei (there's a new angle in life),” Suryakumar Yadav said in a video shared by BCCI.
However, the game might have gone either way, with Australia needing 10 runs to win in the final over bowled by Arshdeep Singh (2/40). Arshdeep dismissed the dangerous Wade (22) and limited Australia to three runs in the over.
"I have seen him (Arshdeep) bowl in such situations in franchise cricket, that's why I kept his over as the last one," said Surya, sharing his tactics.
