Dhawan, Kohli, Pandya help India complete big chase, win series

Sydney, Dec 7 (IANS): Hardik Pandya smashed two sixes in the last over to take India to victory in the second T20I against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on Sunday.

India have thus taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series and bounced from the defeat they suffered in the ODI series before this. It also marks the first time since 2016 that India have managed to beat Australia in a T20I series home or away.

Shikhar Dhawan’s 52 and captain Virat Kohli’s 40 along with a 22-ball 30 from K.L. Rahul helped India bring the equation down to 14 runs needed off the last over in their chase of a target of 195. Pandya, who had back-to-backk fours in the second last over bowled by Andrew Tye, was on strike against Daniel Sams and took two runs off the first ball. He then hit the second ball wide of long-on and cleared the boundary.

Pandya then tried to get an upper cut on the third ball but missed it completely before depositing the fourth past deep midwicket over the boundary. The partnership between Pandya and Shreyas Iyer, who scored 12 off five balls, remained unbeaten on 46. It was India’s second highest partnership after the opening stand of 56 between Dhawan and Rahul.

Sams, Tye, Mitchell Swepson and Adam Zampa got a wicket each as Australia bowled as many as seven bowlers.

Earlier, Matthew Wade, who was standing in as Australia’s captain and opening batsman in place of the injured Aaron Finch, scored 58 off 32 balls as Australia scored 194/5. Steve Smith scored 46 off 38 while Glenn Maxwell, Moises Henriques and Marcus Stoinis chipped in from the lower order to take Australia close to the 200-run mark.