Former Australia captain Aaron Finch was full of praise for Axar Patel who played his all-rounder role to perfection as India’s spinners took six wickets in a stunning fight back to rout Australia by 48 runs in the fourth T20I on the Gold Coast on Thursday. Bowling for the first time in the series, Washington Sundar took 3-3 in 1.2 overs while fellow all-rounder Patel had 2-20 as Australia lost their last nine wickets for 52 runs at Carrara stadium.
Patel was named man-of-the-match, having also contributed an unbeaten 21 with the bat to push India past 160. “He’s somebody who strikes a ball so cleanly, and he gave India a real injection right at the backend of the innings,” Finch told JioHotstar. “It looked at one stage that they might only get around that 152-153 mark. But then a couple of big blows in the last over off Marcus Stoinis.. just proved the package that he is. Then when he gets ball in hand, he’s a wizard at times. Particularly on surfaces like this, that might offer a fraction of hold at times, but also can skid through. So uses all of his tricks, all of his skills, if you combine that with his fielding, he is a serious package in international cricket. It was a wonderful performance today, richly deserved player of the match.”
Player of the Match Axar Patel said he focused on assessing the pitch conditions before making his move with the bat and looked to exploit the good length while bowling. “I batted at No 8 and had a chance to look at the wicket. There was some unexpected bounce, so I waited for my position and just hit,” said the 31-year-old, who struck an 11-ball 21 to boost India’s total. On his bowling figures of two for 20, Axar said: “I was thinking what was the batter’s strength. If the batter was looking to hit me down the ground, I was looking to hit the good length.”
Australia spinner Adam Zampa and paceman Nathan Ellis took three wickets apiece for the hosts to restrict India to what had seemed a below-par total after home captain Mitchell Marsh won the toss and elected to field. Australia cruised past 60 for the sole loss of opener Matt Short (25) but the chase went awry as they lost 3-12 in the late-middle overs to fall to 103 for six. Not even the recalled Glenn Maxwell could stop the rot as the pugnacious all-rounder fell for two with stumps shattered by the last ball from legspinner Varun Chakravarthy. India opener Shubman Gill top-scored with 46, anchoring top-order partnerships with Abhishek Sharma (28) and Shivam Dube (22).
While India’s spinners set up the win, captain Suryakumar Yadav gave credit to the batters. “The way Shubman and Abhishek started, they knew this was not a 200-220 wicket,” he said. “They batted very smartly. It was a complete team effort from the batters.” With the first match in Canberra having been washed out by rain, Australia can only hope to draw the series 2-2 in Brisbane.
Speaking about Shivam Dube’s all-round impact, Finch said he’d like the allrounder from Mumbai to be a bit more experssive against pace. “I’ll just love to see him just change his mindset slightly with bat in hand. I think at times he’s expected to walk out and try and dominate spin. I would love at times to see him take on the quicks as well. You don’t want to become known as just a one-dimensional player with bat en hand. So, for that point of view, just take it on a little bit more,” Finch explained. “He’s got all the power. He can hit the ball so far, and we’ve seen him start to do it on smaller grounds in the IPL playing in Chennai. He takes on the short ball early. But I’d love to see him do it here as well, and say, ‘You know what, you over pitch, I’m gonna tell you I’m gonna have the confidence to take your downtown with the bat in hand as well.’
India will take a 2-1 series lead into the fifth and final match in Brisbane on Saturday after skittling Australia for 119 in their chase of 167 for eight.
(With agency inputs)
