Australia captain Matthew Wade was left furious by an umpiring error as his side suffered a narrow T20 defeat to India in Bengaluru.
Wade, leading the side with a number of senior players absent after Australia’s World Cup win, had guided the tourists to within sight of victory in the final game of the five-match series.
Seven runs off the penultimate over left 10 needed off the last, bowled by seamer Arshdeep Singh, with set batter Wade on strike.
The left-armer’s first ball was short and appeared to comfortably clear Wade’s head, but was not signalled a wide by the square leg umpire. Wade was left incensed and gestured angrily towards the umpire after the non-call.
Wade was then unable to get a yorker away and hit the third ball of the over down long-on’s throat, allowing Arshdeep to close out victory and a 4-1 India series win.
“It’s hard to wrap my head around at the moment after not being able to get us home,” Wade said after the defeat. “I thought we bowled relatively well. We kept them to a total that probably should have been chased at this ground.
“It’s pretty disappointing. It would have been nice to get the result tonight. I think 3-2 would have been a reflection of where the series was at.”
Suryakumar Yadav (left) captained India to a 4-1 series victory— (Getty Images)
Australia had restricted India to a total of 160-8 from their 20 overs, with seam-bowling all-rounder Aaron Hardie and young leg-spinner Tanveer Sangha impressing despite a fluent half-century from Shreyas Iyer.
Travis Head and Ben McDermott, who smashed five sixes in a 36-ball 54, helped the visitors get off to a strong start in the chase, but spinners Ravi Bishnoi and Axar Patel put the clamps on, allowing Arshdeep and Mukesh Kumar to seal the win with some accurate death bowling.
“It was a good series from day one,” said Suryakumar Yadav, India’s captain. “The way the boys showed their skills was commendable.
“We wanted to be fearless, we wanted to enjoy when we were in the middle. I told them, ‘do whatever is right and just enjoy your game,’ and they did the same. So very happy with that.”
