3 best T20I wins for India against Australia

#2 Third T20I at Sydney in 2016

Suresh Raina's last ball boundary helped India seal a 3-0 whitewash

India had already taken an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-match series before the teams met again at Sydney for the third T20 match.

In the five-match one-day series that preceded the T20 series, Australia took a lead of 4-0 before India came back to win the last one-day match at Sydney. At that point in time, the Indian coach Ravi Shastri announced that his team would try for a 4-4 result in the combined 8 matches of white ball cricket. Hence the last T20 match at Sydney assumed so much importance.

Shane Watson was captaining Australia for this match. He won the toss and elected to bat first. Thereafter it was a one-man show with Watson going all guns blazing scoring an unbeaten 124 off 71 balls with 10 fours and 6 sixes. Due to Watson’s single-handed effort, Australia reached 197 in 20 overs.

India were off to a flying start when Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan put on 46 runs in 3.2 overs. The first over bowled by Shaun Tait yielded just 7 runs. But both the openers warmed themselves up in the second over bowled by Scott Boland scoring a boundary each.

The second over of Tait opened the floodgates with Dhawan nailing 2 fours and a six. That over went for 24 runs. Watson brought himself on in the fourth over of the innings and met with immediate success with the wicket of Dhawan.

Kohli was in fine form right through the Australian tour as he went after Boland and Andrew Tye. At the end of Power Play, India were 74 for 1. From 10, the required run rate dropped down to 8.85 at the end of the first 6 overs of Power Play.

At the halfway mark, India were 102 for 1 with both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli well set. Rohit Sharma reached his 50 in the 12th over of the innings. However, he got out immediately after reaching his 50. Raina got a life before opening his account when Bancroft missed an easy stumping. The next ball was swept for a six.

At the other end, Kohli duly completed his customary 50 before losing his wicket in the same over. Yuvraj Singh joined Raina with India needing 51 off the last 5 overs. Yuvraj continued to struggle in the series as India could manage only 17 runs in the 16th and 17th over. Luckily for India, Raina was in full flow as he managed 12 runs in the 18th over bowled by Andrew Tye. India needed 22 in 2 overs.

Watson had a wonderful match until then and he finished off in style conceding just 5 runs in the 19th over of the innings. Yuvraj was on 5 off 9 balls. India needed 17 runs in the last over. Australia thought they were through with the out-of-form Yuvraj on strike against the death over specialist Andrew Tye.

The first ball was a length ball on the leg stump and Yuvraj nonchalantly flicked it to fine leg for a four. The second ball was another leg stump half volley which Yuvraj lifted over mid-wicket for a six. The Australians were stunned by Yuvraj’s sudden timely outbreak. With those two telling blows, Yuvraj brought India back into the game. India needed 7 from 4 balls.

Yuvraj and Raina crossed over for a bye to reduce the target to 6 from 3 balls. Raina managed 4 runs in the next two balls. India needed 2 runs to win from the last ball. All three results were possible at that stage. The last ball was a short ball on the off-stump which Raina managed to lift it over point for a four. India won the match off the very last ball of the match. Raina remained not out on 49 off 25 balls.

Shane Watson was the man-of-the-match for his all-round performance while Kohli was adjudged the man-of-the-series. In the ICC rankings for T20I, India jumped from 8th position to 1st position after this clean sweep. Thus India became the No 1 team both in Tests and T20I.

That was the first time ever Australia were whitewashed in a home series. For India, it was a good end to the tour after their dismal show in the Test and ODI series in Australia.