AFP photo.
Sports: Indian cricketer Rutraj Gaikwad hit a rare milestone on Sunday, batting against the Aussies in the final match 5-match T20I series hosted by India.
India won the series 4-1 against Australia, which had defeated the Men in Blue at the final of the ODI World Cup last month. The difference is that Indian youngsters are playing Australia under Suryakumar Yadav.
Gaikwad gathered 223 runs from five matches at an average of 55.75, which is the most by any batter against Australia in a T20I bilateral series.
Earlier, the record was with Martin Guptill, with 218 runs, back in 2021. Also, Gaikwad was dismissed for ten runs in the Sunday match. Further, the Chennai Super Kings star is the third-highest Indian run-scorer in a single series after KL Rahul and Virat Kohli.
During the Sunday match, Shreyas Iyer’s pretty fifty took India to 160 for 8 at the Bengaluru Chinnaswamy Stadium. Freshers Arshdeep Singh and Mukesh Kumar managed the death overs with care, allowing Australia to take 154 in 20 overs and lose 8 wickets.
Arshdweep was expensive before, and the Aussies needed only ten runs from the last over. However, he held on to his nerves, with calculated lengths for his deliveries, so Mathew Wade struggled to drive them. Wade, who was making an effort to bring the team to victory, hit three boundaries back-to-back in the 18th over but fell before Arshdweep in the final over, in which the bowler gave only three runs.
Mukesh (3/32) bowled a dream over that changed the game in India’s favour. He made back-to-back dismissals and gave only two runs.