AUSSIES SAVE FACE SAHA SCORES HALF TON IN DRAWN GAME
Sydney, Dec. 8: Australian bowlers held their nerves to come up trumps against the genius of Virat Kohli, stalling an Indian clean-sweep with a 12-run victory in the third and final T20 International on Tuesday.
While India won the shortest format 2-1, it was overall an even result for the two teams which won three white-ball games each. Tuesday’s loss ended the visitors’ 10match winning streak in the format.
Kohli got as many as four reprieves and cashed in well enough to smash his way to 85 off 61 balls but India could only reach as far as 174/7 in their pursuit of 187 in 20 overs.
It was a slash drive off Andrew Tye in the penultimate over which was plucked inches off the ground by Daniel Sams, who compensated for a forgettable day with the ball.
An over before that Hardik Pandya’s swagger was checked by Adam
here
Zampa (1/21 in 3 overs). Zampa’s leg-break turned enough to force the ‘Baroda Bomber’ to hit one against the turn and be caught at short thirdman.
Once Pandya was gone, there was too much pressure on Kohli, who failed to take the team home.
While he hit four fours and three sixes, Kohli did lead a charmed life as Steve Smith missed a dolly at deep mid-wicket fence when he gave Maxwell the charge.
Then Sean Abbott failed to get his hands on a tough return catch while another slipped through Tye’s palms. During the fag end, Matthew Wade missed an easy stumping.
The Indian captain scored his third half-century of the tour and an effortless six off Abbott after the completion of the milestone gave muchneeded relief to the Indian dug-out. This was after Mitchell Swepson’s
(3/23) innocuous legbreaks reduced them to
100 for 4. —
Sydney, Dec. 8: In the form of a sedate half-century, Wriddhiman Saha got himself some invaluable batting practice ahead of the first Test against Australia, but his other famed Indian colleagues failed to bat long as their warm-up game against Australia ‘A’ concluded in a draw here on Tuesday.
Medium pacer Mark Steketee, who returned impressive figures of
5/37, came in the way of what could have been a few sessions of good batting practice on the third and final day for the touring Indians.
Making up for his firstinnings nought, Saha topscored for the visitors with 54 after facing 100 balls at the Drummoyne Oval on the third and final day of the tune-up.
Beginning with a deficit of 59 runs, the Indians declared their second innings at 189 for 9. In reply, the hosts, needing
130 in 15 overs for an outright victory, reached 52 for 1 when the stumps were drawn.