An all-round performance from Axar Patel and a lower-order Australian collapse has seen India take a 48-run victory as the visitors defended 167 at Gold Coast Stadium.
Australia took the momentum into the innings break after halting India’s charge towards a 180-plus score, but the match’s second innings took on a similar shape to the first with scoring against the older ball proving very difficult.
Axar was responsible putting the brakes on the Aussie innings, conceding only 20 runs from his four overs while taking the first two wickets.
This came after his late-innings cameo of 21 off 11 had given the tourists a little more to bowl at as wickets fell around him.
Matt Short (25 off 19) made a flying start in his new home city in Australia’s chase as he returned to his preferred batting position of opener.
After two impressive sixes, including one straight down the ground, the Aussies were 0-35 after four overs.
But it was a smart review from Axar that had claimed the opening breakthrough, with Short given out lbw while sweeping after a check with the third umpire.
Axar had No.3 Josh Inglis’s measure too, with a string of dot balls pressuring the keeper-batter into an uncharacteristic charge-and-slog, and swing-and-miss.
Shivam Dube proved a surprise with the ball, after he copped some tap (1-43) in the third T20I in Hobart.
He was fortuitous to claim the wicket of Mitch Marsh, brilliantly caught on the rope by Arshdeep Singh after the Aussie captain chunked a pull shot out to the deep.
However, Dube was thoroughly deserving of the wicket of dangerman Tim David, who had the smoked him into the upper deck the ball before.
While the crowd were still busy gushing at and watching the replay of another David monster, Dube followed up with an off-cutter short ball, which cramped David’s cross-bat swipe, and ballooned softly into the hands of Suryakumar Yadav at cover.
Australia lost 7-28 following David’s dismissal, with Josh Philippe (10) and Glenn Maxwell (2) out in consecutive overs, and then Marcus Stoinis (17) and Xavier Bartlett out in consecutive balls (2).
Earlier as the sun set on the GC, India threatened to fly past the 200 mark after they scored 49 runs in a wicketless Powerplay and with six overs to go still had eight wickets in hand with 121 on the board.
Shubman Gill hit some typically crisp shots as he top-scored with 46 but was never able to get rolling, which his strike rate of 117.9 reflected.
Captain Suryakumar Yadav looked in ominous touch, slog-sweeping his fourth and fifth balls for six off Adam Zampa to the short boundary.
It was the ever-reliable Ellis who turned the tide for the Aussies, completely deceiving Gill with a back-of-the-hand slower ball that bowled the Indian Test skipper.
That started the rot for India, with the visitors losing 4-15 in the space of 14 balls.
Adam Zampa (3-45) copped some tap in his first game back following the birth of his second child yesterday, but held his nerve to deliver three important breakthroughs, including that of opener Abhishek Sharma who had deposited him for a long, straight six two balls earlier.
Surya’s dismissal, excellently caught by Tim David on the long leg-side boundary, cut short a potentially decisive innings as the destructive hitter hit 20 runs from his 10 balls.
Only Axar looked comfortable in the death overs as the tourists managed only 46 runs in the final six overs. In hindsight, it was an important clutch of runs.
Ellis was the pick of the Aussie bowlers, with his wide range of variations on display. His first three balls of the night went for 10 runs at the hands of Gill but he responded significantly to finish the night with figures of 3-21 from four overs.
Ellis talks bowling change-ups, variations and inspirations
India lead the series 2-1 with the fifth and final match to be played at the Gabba in Brisbane on Saturday.
Australia v India T20Is 2025
October 29: No result
October 31: Australia won by four wickets
November 2: India won by five wickets
November 6: India won by 48 runs
November 8: Fifth T20I v India, The Gabba, Brisbane, 7:15pm AEDT
Australia squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott (games 1-3), Xavier Bartlett, Mahli Beardman (games 3-5), Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis (games 4-5), Nathan Ellis, Josh Hazlewood (games 1-2), Ben McDermott (standby player) Glenn Maxwell (games 3-5), Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Matthew Kuhnemann, Mitchell Owen, Josh Philippe (wk), Matthew Short, Marcus Stoinis, Tanveer Sangha
India squad: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shubman Gill (vc), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (wk), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar
