India lost openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul cheaply in the powerplay, but Suryakumar Yadav and Virat Kohli put on a century partnership as they chased down their target of 187, with Hardik Pandya scoring the winning runs with a ball to spare.
Suryakumar Yadav hit five fours and as many sixes in his 36-ball 69 and looked unstoppable until he fell to Josh Hazlewood, with Kohli scoring 63 for 48. Suryakumar Yadav and Virat Kohli put together 104 runs in 62 balls for the fourth wicket.
Pandya (25) kept his cool in the face of relentless Australian attack after Kohli was dismissed in the final over and sealed the win by hitting a boundary off Daniel Sams.
The win sealed India’s first home T20I series win against Australia since 2013.
India captain Rohit said, “It was a good opportunity. We wanted to do a show, and we did it well.” “The biggest positive was that different individuals were moving forward with the ball and the bat.
“In T20 cricket, the margin of error is very small. I thought we took our chances, we were brave. Sometimes it didn’t work out, but it’s a lesson we’ll take.”
Australia got off to a stellar start with opener Cameron Greene’s 21-ball 52 studded with seven fours and three sixes when Axar Patel gave India the breakthrough off skipper Aaron Finch (7).
The hosts got some more breathing space after Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed Green and Glenn Maxwell (6) by Axar, while Steve Smith (9) was stumped by Dinesh Karthik off Yuzvendra Chahal.
Josh Inglis (24) and Matthew Wade (1) were both dismissed for 117-6 at the hands of Axar in the 14th over, before Tim David provided a late flourish with 54 off 27 balls.
David added 68 runs for the seventh wicket with Sams (28) and scored his first international half-century for Australia, helping the visitors to a strong 186-7.
Australia won the first match of the series by four wickets, while India reduced the series to eight overs per side with a six-wicket win in a match on Friday.
“We thought it was a good total, it was a little dew, and we knew we had to get wickets,” Finch said. “You can’t count on controlling India. At times, we were a bit sluggish in our execution.
“It was a great series… Being able to play three games against a world-class team has been great for this team.”