Virat Kohli’s Indian cricket team may have lost the third and final Twenty20 International at the Sydney Cricket Ground against Australia by 12 runs on Tuesday but they won the three-match series 2-1. Virat Kohli thus became the second captain after Faf du Plessis to win a series in all formats in Australia and India became the second nation after Sri Lanka to win two or more Twenty20 International series in Australia. Virat Kohli starred with a magnificent 85 off 61 balls but it was not enough as India suffered their first loss in a Twenty20 International in 2020, having won 5-0 in New Zealand as well as the first two matches. However, following the end of the match, there was a special gesture by both Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya which won the hearts of millions of fans.
When the Indian cricket team posed for the series win, Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya handed the series trophy as well as the Man of the Series trophies to debutant T Natarajan and made him pose in the centre. T Natarajan had a fantastic series for India, ending with six wickets from three games and showing his class in the death overs. His execution of the yorkers, variety in pace and clever lengths got the better of the Australian batsmen in all the games and his spell of 2/20 played a huge part in India restricting Australia to under 200.
Taking to his official Twitter account, Hardik Pandya tweeted, “Natarajan, you were outstanding this series. To perform brilliantly in difficult conditions on your India debut speaks volumes of your talent and hardwork. You deserve Man of the Series from my side bhai! Congratulations to #TeamIndia on the win.”
Great momentum for the Tests
Following their win in the Canberra ODI which stopped the Australian team from achieving the whitewash, India rode the momentum and achieved the Twenty20 International series win. Virat Kohli, speaking after the match, said the competitive attitude shown in the T20Is must reflect even in the four-Test series.
“We need to take the same competitive attitude into the Tests, and having played here a few times, we can score runs as well. Once it's time to capitalize and score, we need to do that session by session. I'm sure the current side is stronger than last time (Test matches) and I'll see if I can play the tour match,” Kohli said.
On the other hand, Hardik Pandya said it was a collective team effort and stated that he was looking forward to meeting his son, Agastya, whom he has not seen for the last four months due to the IPL and Australia tours. “I’m very pleased, and wouldn't mind getting the Man of the Series award, but it was a team effort. After the 2nd ODI we thought we'd think of this this a 4-match series and we managed to get three wins, so happy with that. I don't mind giving interviews because you only have those when you're on the winning side. I haven't seen my child for four months, so I'd like to spend some time with family right now.
