India National Cricket Team left-arm spinner Axar Patel castled Australia National Cricket Team batsman Ben McDermott in the fourth T20I of the five-match series at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur on Friday, December 1.
The 29-year-old has been economical with the ball in the current series against the Australians. Before today’s match, he recorded bowling figures of 0/32, 1/25 and 1/37. He improved his performance in the fourth T20I and ended his stint with excellent bowling figures of 3/16.
Axar Patel picked up the wickets of Travis Head, Aaron Hardie and Ben McDermott in the match. He dismissed McDermott on the second ball of the twelfth over. The spinner threw a short pitch, which was slow in the air. McDermott wanted to break a limit and tried hard. He completely missed the ball and watched his stumps vibrate. The Australian batsman scored 19 runs off 22 balls, one four and returned to the hut leaving Australia reeling at 87/4.
See: Castles of Axar Patel Ben McDermott
Axar Patel hits the stumps again! ⚡️⚡️
This time it’s Ben McDermott who has to go. #TeamIndia | #INDvAUS | @IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/RNVWR84dIn
-BCCI (@BCCI) December 1, 2023
Batting first, Indian openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad gave the team a good start. However, after his dismissal, India lost quick wickets before Rinku Singh and Jitesh Sharma played absolutely outstanding innings to help India put a good total on the board.
The Men in Blue scored 174 runs for the loss of 9 wickets. For Australia, Ben Dwarshuis was the pick of the bowlers as he took a three-wicket haul. Jason Behrendorff and Tanveer Sangha got two wickets each, while Aaron Hardie got one wicket.
Chasing the target, the Australian batsmen simply could not get ahead. Travis Head was the only one who dominated the Indian bowling attack and apart from him, no batsman could play cricket with confidence. At the end of the 18th over, they were at 135/7.
Australia (playing XI): Josh Philippe, Travis Head, Ben McDermott, Aaron Hardie, Tim David, Matthew Short, Matthew Wade (w/c), Ben Dwarshuis, Chris Green, Jason Behrendorff, Tanveer Sangha
India (playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Deepak Chahar, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar