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Team India defeated Australia by 20 runs in the fourth T20I at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium in Raipur as Rinku Singh and Jitesh Sharma ran riots in batting while Axar Patel swung a web around the Aussie batters. With this win, the Indian side took an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match T20I series against Australia.
Australia skipper Matthew Wade won the toss and invited the Men in Blue to bat first, who registered a 175-run target as openers Yashasvi Jaiswal (37-off-28) and Ruturaj Gaikwad (32-off-28) gave a decent start to their side. Jaiswal and Gaikwad combined for 50 runs for the first wicket as Aaron Hardie dismissed the 21-year-old left-handed batter.
Following Jaiswal's wicket, India lost two more wickets in quick succession as Shreyas Iyer, who replaced Tilak Varma in the playing XI, was caught out by Chris Green on Tanvir Sangha's delivery at eight runs, while skipper Suryakumar Yadav lost his wicket at just one run.
However, Rinku Singh continued his fine form and fell just four runs short of his half-century as he scored 46-off-29 with four fours and two sixes. Rinku was supported by wicketkeeper-batter Jitesh Sharma, who replaced Ishan Kishan, scoring 35-off-19 with three sixes and a four. Ben Dwarshuis picked up three wickets while Jason Beherendorff and Tanveer Sangha picked up two wickets each for Australia.
During the chase, Australia failed to soak in the pressure as they scored 154 runs at a loss of seven wickets. Matthew Wade, scoring an unbeaten knock of 36-off-23, was the highest-scorer for the Aussies in the fourth T20I while Travis Head scored 31-off-16. Axar Patel picked three wickets while Deepak Chahar picked two. Apart from them, Ravi Bishnoi and Avesh Khan picked one wicket each to help India win by 20 runs.
