Axar, Dube, Washington power India to 2-1 series lead

Led by their spinners and a vital pair of inroads from Shivam Dube, India impressively defended what had initially seemed a slightly light total to take an unassailable 2-1 lead in the T20I series on the Gold Coast with a handsome 48-run victory.

From 121 for 2 after 14 overs, on a surface that captain Suryakumar Yadav had termed subcontinental at the toss, India were only able to post 167 largely due to the key breakthroughs provided by Adam Zampa, back in the side after the birth of his second child, and late-overs brilliance of Nathan Ellis.

But Australia shed wickets at regular intervals in the first stage of their chase before collapsing in a heap to lose 7 for 28. Axar Patel conceded just 20 off his four overs, including 12 dot balls, while Dube claimed the key wicket of Tim David. Varun Chakravarthy's final delivery of the evening all but sealed the contest when Glenn Maxwell, returning from his broken wrist, completely failed to pick a googly.

The result left a large proportion of the 20,470 crowd delighted and meant that the best Australia could hope for is a share of the series in the final game at the Gabba on Saturday.

Axar only had a limited role with the ball in the first three matches of the series; India didn't bowl in Canberra, he wasn't used at the MCG, then he returned 0 for 35 in Hobart. Here, however, he came to the fore, as his darting left-arm spin proved very difficult to combat.

Matthew Short, back in his favoured opening role but one he has conceded is probably not realistic to have at the T20 World Cup, had dominated the early stages of the chase before falling lbw sweeping at Axar when India successfully reviewed the not out decision. Axar then defeated Josh Inglis, a player who looked rusty after a period on the sidelines, when he charged down the pitch.

As in the previous match, Mitchell Marsh had not had a huge amount of strike early in the chase but was starting to move through the gears. Dube dropped a slower delivery in short, it was very much in Marsh's wheelhouse, and the pull went flat towards deep square leg where Arshdeep Singh took an excellent running catch around the boundary. However, Dube's big moment was to come.

David launched him for a huge six over long-on - it wasn't far from striking the overhanging roof - but Dube's revenge only took one delivery. Banging the ball in short, David was hurried into a pull and top edged into the covers.

When Josh Philippe spliced to short midwicket two overs later it was another game that needed Maxwell to salvage it but having not batted in the middle since mid-September, that was always a tall order. The dominance of the visiting spinners was perhaps a little warning to Australia ahead of the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka early next year.