3rd T20I: Australia get consolation win, India take series 2-1

Australia finally came good in the T20I series in the third and the final game beating India by 12 runs and avoided the clean sweep.

Put into bat first, Australia didn't get off to a great start, with losing their original captain back into the side Aaron Finch cheaply - in the 2nd over. 

Wade and Maxwell Show

Steve Smith joined wicket-keeper batsman Matthew Wade, who continued his smashing form from the last game and kept punishing the Indian bowlers whenever they missed their lines.

Wade was especially severe on the shorter length deliveries. Whether it was spinners or the pacers, Wade latched on to anything short and compiled yet another fifty in T20Is for Australia.

Smith was scratchy in his 23-ball 24 as he hit just one boundary and was bowled by Washington Sundar. Sundar came back well after a pasting in the second game. He accounted for both Finch and Smith.

Howver, India's good times ended then and there as what followed next was carnage from Glenn Maxwell and Wade played his second fiddle. Dropped catches, no-balls, missed reviews didn't help India's cause as duo started to pile on their misery and targeted the leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal.

Chahal went for 41 runs in his four overs without any success and Maxwell notched-up his half-century as well.

However, India broke the partnership with Wade's wicket and also sent Maxwell packing in the last over, but Wade and Maxwell's 90-run partnership ensured that their score went beyond 180.

Steady start but not fast

Chasing 187, India too had an indifferent start as Kl Rahul was dismissed just on the second ball of Indian innings.

Even though skipper Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan managed to combine for a 74-run partnership, it came in 51 balls as both couldn't get the boundaries frequently enough.

Dhawan's wicket was just the starting as India lost Sanju Samson and Shreyas Iyer in quick succession and the innings started faltering. It was leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson's third wicket of the innings, as he finished with figures of 3/23

Hardik-Kohli repair after quick wickets

Hardik Pandya joined skipper Virat when India needed 87 runs in seven overs. Both Pandya and Kohli started getting boundaries at ease and made Daniel Sams, who came to bowl the 16th over pay as they accumulated 20 runs off that over.

In Andrew Tye's next over, Pandya hit a four and a six and India got 13 runs off that as well. Still they required 43 off the last three.

Finch handed the ball to another leg-spinner Adam Zampa and his gamble bore fruits immediately as he removed Pandya to dash the Indian hopes.

India scored just 7 runs in that over. Tye came in to bowl the 19th and he hit the last nail in the coffin by drawing Virat Kohli's wicket. 

After which, it was just a formality and Australia won the game by 12 runs albeit some late lusty blows from Shardul Thakur.

Both the teams have now wrapped the limited-overs leg of the tour with one series each in their bag and now proceed into the longest format of the game, starting on December 17, with a Day-night test in Adelaide.