A turnaround time of 48 hours didn’t allow Suryakumar Yadav & Co to celebrate their series-clinching win in Raipur that eventually provided an even contest between bat and ball after three run-fests. Back on the field on Sunday, the team displayed a disciplined effort on an indifferent M Chinnaswamy surface to romp home by six runs, and prepare for their South Africa sojourn with a 4-1 win over Australia.

Invited to bat at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru with relatively shorter boundaries than the one in Raipur, India would have expected the likes of SKY and Rinku Singh to go bonkers but despite Shreyas Iyer’s half century, Australia pulled back things in style to restrict the hosts to 160.

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Coming in at 33 for 1 by the fourth over, Iyer rescued India from the blushes with a gritty 53 off 37 deliveries, on a tricky track, which in the words of Aussie leg-spinner Tanveer Sangha, “had a bit of tackiness in it,” and demanded the experience and skills of the Mumbai right-hander to propel India to the score.

The Bengaluru surface which has historically not aided spin, appeared a paradise for the slower men, especially Ravi Bishnoi, who put the brakes on Australia’s chase dismissing the dangerous Travis Head (28 off 18) and Aaron Hardie (6) before the miserly Axar Patel removed Tim David (17) to break the flourishing 47-run fourth wicket partnership with Ben McDermott, who provided the tempo to the chase with a power-packed 54 off 36, laced with five massive sixes.

McDermott finally got into his groove in the series, bringing up a 33-ball half century to keep India on their toes. Coming in at the fall of opener Josh Phillipe (4), the Queensland right-hander seized the momentum, playing an innings that matched that of Iyer, to keep the Kangaroos in the hunt before pacer Mukesh Kumar, who gave India the first breakthrough dismissing Phillipe, returned for his third over to pack back Matthew Short (16) and Ben Dwarshuis (0) off successive deliveries that got the crowd on their feet again.

However, with Matthew Wade still out in the middle, and the equation down to 32 off 20 was further helped by Avesh Khan by leaking three successive boundaries, before Mukesh almost got rid of the Aussie skipper in the penultimate over had a running Ruturaj Gaikwad latched on to the catch.

With 10 needed off the final over, Arshdeep put the nail on Australia’s hopes, removing Wade (22 off 15 balls), to script India’s six-run victory.

Earlier, Iyer was involved in two fruitful partnerships, first for 42 runs with Jitesh Sharma, who slammed a 16-ball 24, and then added 46 runs for the sixth wicket with Axar Patel, contributing a handy 31 off 22 balls to give the bowlers a defendable total.

Put in to bat, India got off to a brisk start before Australia crashed the party, removing openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad inside the powerplay that fetched 42 runs. Jaiswal was the first to depart, removed by Jason Behrendorff for 21 off 15, while Gaikwad fell for 10 against Ben Dwarshuis.

Dwarshuis then got rid of Suryakumar in the next over, packing the Indian skipper for 5. Australia continued to make inroads as Sangha removed Rinku for 6, reducing India to 55 for 4 in 9.1 overs before Jitesh and Shreyas got together to repair the innings.

Both teams made one change each in their playing XIs, with Nathan Ellis getting some game time replacing Chris Green. Deepak Chahar, on the other hand, had flown back home due to medical emergency and was replaced by Arshdeep Singh.