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India completed a 3-0 white wash of its T20 series against Australia on Sunday night despite a century from stand-in Australian captain Shane Watson.
REPORT: INDIA WIN LAST-BALL THRILLER
Watson’s century helped Australia set an imposing total of 197 for India to chase but despite needing 17 balls off the last over the visitors were able to get the job done.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli both put together half centuries to build the Indian innings while Suresh Raina (49 not out) hit the winnings runs.
Final score
Australia 5/197
India 3/200
A whitewash is on the cards when India take on Australia in the third and the final Twenty20 match of the three-game series at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday. Join The Roar for a live blog of this match from 7:38 pm AEDT.
If the Australian selectors opted to experiment with their Twenty20 side in the lead-up to the World T20, and they do go on to do well in that competition, their shoddy showing in this series will be forgotten.
If that doesn’t happen, there could be some serious questions asked of the selectors, given the manner in which they have capitulated in the two games so far. And if they don’t up the ante in this third game, a 3-0 scoreline looks likely.
The resting of their main quick bowlers for starters and then the release of David Warner and Steven Smith from the squad for the final two games speaks of how seriously this format is taken. And now that Aaron Finch is injured, Australia are not only lacking a quality T20 batsman at the top but also their captain.
Shane Watson gets the reins, and Usman Khawaja gets the much-vaunted spot at the top of the order, something that should please most fans.
Among the rest, even Matthew Wade has been sent to New Zealand to prepare for the ODIs, which allows Cameron Bancroft a chance in the line-up. What Australia will now also need is for Glenn Maxwell to step up after a poor previous game.
It will also be interesting to see if they look to change their bowling line-up after it got hammered away by a powerful Indian batting line-up. There were six changes made to the Aussie XI and apart from the aforesaid two, they could make one or two others as well.
India’s batting has won them the first two matches in this series but due credit to the spinners as well. After figures of 4/49 from their eight overs in the first game, the pair of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja shone yet again at the MCG despite a wet outfield making it difficult to grip the ball.
They scalped three wickets in their spell to go with Yuvraj Singh’s 1/7 from his two overs to choke the run flow yet again.
As far as their batting is concerned, there are talks India might look to experiment with their line-up and allow the likes of Yuvraj Singh and Hardik Pandya a go but with seven more T20s to be played before the World T20, skipper MS Dhoni might prefer gunning for a whitewash.
Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of this Australia v India third Twenty20 from 7:38pm AEDT on Sunday and post your comments in the section below.
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