India on Sunday defeated Australia by 6 runs in the last T20 International of the series to win the series 4-1. The last match of the series was played at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium amidst loud chanting of Jai Shri Ram, a slogan that has become a war cry for Hindutva zealots in India since Narendra Modi became India’s prime minister in 2014.
Batting first, India could only manage 160-8 in 20 overs with Shreyas Iyer scoring 53 from 37 balls. Jason Behrendorff and Ben Dwarshuis shared two wickets each for Australia.
Though Australia started their run chase on an aggressive note, the tourists kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Ben McDermott was the top scorer with a knock of 54 from 36 balls.
Australian skipper Mathew Wade was unhappy with questionable umpiring after the Indian official refused to declare a bouncer by Arshdeep Singh wide in the last over of the match. Australia needed 10 runs from 6 balls then. The incident left Wade angry, forcing him to lose his wickets a couple of balls later.
Australia fell short of 6 runs in the end, losing the match and the series 1-4.
Mukesh Kumar took three wickets while Ravi Bishnoi and Arshdeep Singh shared two wickets each.