Spinners guide India to T20 series victory

On what was a twopaced surface in Raipur on Friday, India showed their spin might to earn a 20-run win over Australia in the fourth T20I and claim the series with a game to spare.

- Aditya Chaturvedi

For the first time in the series, the pitch wasn't a belter and less than 400 runs were scored in the contest. Batting first, the hosts put on a total of 174/9 before restricting the visitors to 154/7 to take an unassailable 3-1 lead.

Once again, Travis Head timed the ball wonderfully and gave Australia a strong start in the chase. The left-hander made good use of the new ball and field restrictions to pierce gaps and hit a flurry of boundaries. He took Deepak Chahar, making a comeback to international cricket after a year, for 22 runs in the third over. India gained control of the proceedings as their spinners were introduced into the attack from the fourth over. Ravi Bishnoi cleaned up Josh Philippe with his first ball before Axar Patel got the all-important wicket of Head in the next over. Australia's hero from the recent ODI World Cup final attempted a slog sweep but skied the ball to short-third.