India notches easy five-wicket win against Australia in third T20

HOBART, Australia (AP) – Washington Sundar smashed an unbeaten 49 off 23 balls in a powerful display of aggressive batting and propelled India to a series-levelling five-wicket win over Australia in the third Twenty20 cricket international on Sunday.

Left-hander Sundar smacked four sixes and three fours as India cruised to 188-5 with nine balls to spare.

Tim David made an electrifying 74 off 38 deliveries and Marcus Stoinis dominated the latter half of the innings with 64 off 39 balls as Australia made 186-6 after captain Mitchell Marsh lost the toss and Australia was put in to bat first. The first game of the five-match series was washed out due to rain in Canberra and Australia won the second by four wickets at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Sundar was one of three changes India made from the side that lost at the MCG as the visitors also brought in left-arm fast bowler Arshdeep Singh and Jitesh Sharma played his first game since his last T20 against Afghanistan in January 2024.

Nathan Ellis (3-36) picked up the wickets of openers Abhishek Sharma (25) and Shubman Gill (15) in his incisive two overs in the powerplay. Abhishek played in his usual fearless fashion and hit two sixes and two fours before he top-edged Ellis’ short ball behind the wicket.

Ellis then had Gill out plumb leg before wicket and then grabbed a regulation catch of Suryakumar Yadav (24) in the covers after the Indian captain was deceived by a Stoinis off-cutter.

Sundar then took charge of the chase in style despite other batters failing to capitalize on good starts. Sundar smashed his second ball for a six over mid-wicket and didn’t spare the short balls from Sean Abbott (0-56), who replaced Josh Hazlewood in the playing XI.

Tilak Varma made a more than a run-a-ball 29 before he failed to lift his ramp shot off an Xavier Bartlett delivery over the head of wicketkeeper Josh Inglis. Ellis picked up his third wicket in his return spell when Axar Patel holed out at deep mid-wicket.

But Sundar persisted with his ultra-aggressive shots before Jitesh denied his teammate a well-deserved half century when he lofted Abbott over the covers for the winning boundary and remained unbeaten on 22 off 13 balls.

Arshdeep (3-35), who replaced Harshit Rana in the playing XI, made an immediate impact off his fourth ball when Travis Head mistimed a pull shot and skied an easy catch to Yadav at mid-off.

Inglis then swung the left-arm fast bowler to fine leg after struggling for seven balls to score only one. Sundar’s only lapse of the day came when he dropped David on 20 at point as the batter tried to slice Jasprit Bumrah on the off side.

David capitalized on the dropped catch and smashed eight fours and five sixes that included a 129-meter monstrous six over the head of left-arm spinner Patel before Varun Chakravarthy’s twin strikes pushed back Australia.

Marsh (11) didn’t get much of the strike as David dominated a 59-run stand before the Australia captain was caught at long off and Chakravarthy then clean bowled Mitchell Owen with the next delivery.

David continued to push the scoring rate before he was well caught by Varma on the edge of the long-off boundary in the 13th over. Stoinis then took charge and smashed Shivam Dube for two successive sixes and added 64 runs with Matthew Short (26 not out).

However, Arshdeep and Bumrah (0-26) pegged back Australia in the death overs as Arshdeep dismissed Stoinis in the last over.

The fourth game of the series will be played on Thursday, followed by the final game in Brisbane on Saturday.