Carrara (Gold Coast), Nov 6 (IANS) Washington Sundar picked remarkable figures of 3-3 while Axar Patel and Shivam Dube took two wickets each as India produced a commanding bowling performance to defeat Australia by 48 runs in the fourth T20I at Carrara Oval on Thursday and take an unassailable 2-1 lead in the five-match series.

Despite India posting a par score of 167/8 on a two-paced pitch with variable bounce, their bowlers turned the contest decisively in their favour. Each of the six bowlers used picked up at least one wicket, with Sundar, Axar and Dube proving to be standout persons.

Australia, who were well placed to chase down 168, lost their last nine wickets for just 52 runs and couldn’t recover from the stranglehold imposed by India’s spin trio. From 67/1, Australia were eventually bowled out for 119 in 18.2 overs and are now in a must-win scenario for the final game in Brisbane on Saturday.

Australia began their chase with Matthew Short and Mitchell Marsh hitting six boundaries between themselves. Axar provided the breakthrough for India by trapping Short lbw after missing the ball on a sweep and came back to castle Josh Inglish. Marsh looked promising, but his innings was cut short by a slower ball from Dube and holed out to backward square leg.

From there, Australia’s middle order faltered under pressure. Tim David miscued a pull shot off Dube to extra cover. Josh Philippe followed soon after, caught at short mid-wicket off Arshdeep Singh. Glenn Maxwell was undone by a googly from Varun Chakaravarthy that clipped the top of off stump.

Sundar then struck twice in quick succession – trapping Marcus Stoinis lbw and taking a return catch off a tame chip from Xavier Bartlett to claim his 50th T20I wicket. Jasprit Bumrah returned to claim his 99th T20I wicket by castling Ben Dwarshuis while Sundar ended the game by having Adam Zampa hole out to long-on.

Brief Scores: India 167/8 (Shubman Gill 46, Abhishek Sharma 28; Nathan Ellis 3-21, Adam Zampa 3-45) beat Australia 119 in 18.2 overs (Mitchell Marsh 30, Matthew Short 25; Washington Sundar 3-3, Axar Patel 2-20) by 48 runs

–IANS

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