Last-Over Thriller: India Beat Australia by Four Wickets to Seal Series 2-1

Mumbai: On a Wankhede Stadium pitch where the side batting first crosses 300, the final ten overs generally become easier to bat on—dew arrives, the ball comes nicely onto the bat, and spinners begin to lose grip. On Sunday night Australia bet on exactly that arithmetic, and India flipped it. India won the deciding one-day international of the three-match series by four wickets to take the series 2-1. Chasing 313, the hosts reached 314 for six in 48.4 overs. The credit for the win goes to a collective batting effort, but the real turning point came in the last over, when 12 runs were needed and Dev Malhotra was on strike. He struck the first ball for four, rotated the strike off the third, and finished the contest with a six off the fourth. Australia won the toss and chose to bat, and the decision looked correct for the first 25 overs. Opener Joshua Blake made 118 off 104 balls, including nine fours and four sixes. He added 137 for the first wicket with Connor Whitfield (64 off 71) and took the side past the 30th over unbeaten. The most notable feature of Blake's innings was his patience—his strike rate was under 70 for his first 40 balls, but thereafter he scored over 80 runs across 64 deliveries. In the middle order, Liam Hammond played a brisk 41 off 33, which took Australia past 260 in the 45th over. India's bowling story was split into two halves. With the new ball, Tejas Deshpande held an excellent line and length, conceding just 22 in his first spell. But in the middle overs Varun Chauhan proved to be the only source of breakthroughs. He took three for 58 in ten overs—having Whitfield caught at cover, trapping Hammond lbw, and having Blake caught at deep midwicket in the 47th over. Deshpande picked up two, while Ishan Kuraishi and Aditya Saxena took one apiece. Harshit Nair's ten overs cost 71, the most expensive spell on the surface. Australia added 52 in the last five overs, including unbeaten cameos of 8 from Kyle Dawson and 9 from Ben Holland. The pre-match pitch readings proved broadly accurate. The surface was slow, the ball was not coming on quickly, and spinners were getting bounce. Dew arrived heavily in the second innings, forcing bowlers to towel the ball down before every over. That prompted the Australian captain to trust his seamers rather than spin in the final 12 overs—a decision that proved costly, as Trent McKenzie's 9.4 overs went for 74. India's chase began in controlled fashion. Arjun Purohit fell in the eighth over for just 8, but captain Rohan Vaidya held one end. Vaidya made 92 off 88 balls, with ten fours and a six. He shared a 131-run second-wicket stand with Kabir Rana, taking the team past 150 by the 25th over. Rana made 78 off 69, repeatedly using his feet against the spinners and hitting three sixes over long-on. But between the 26th and 38th overs Australia fought back. Against Riley Sterling's off-stump line and Whitfield's pace, India's run rate dropped to 5.2 an over. Rana departed in the 38th, Vaidya in the 40th, and when Sameer Khan (31 off 22) fell in the 45th, India needed 46 off 30 balls. That was the moment Dev Malhotra walked in. Malhotra took no risks in his first two overs—making just 12 off 11 balls and dragging the game to the final over. In the 47th he struck back-to-back fours off Callum Roach, easing the pressure. The 48th over yielded nine and India reached 302, meaning 12 were needed off the last six. McKenzie bowled the first ball short of a length; Malhotra rocked back and cut it past point for four. A single off the second, and off the third Nair (6 not out) took one towards square leg to return the strike. The fourth ball was full and Malhotra sent it sailing over long-on for six. India reached 314 for six in 48.4 overs as the ground erupted. Malhotra finished 54 not out off 39 and was named player of the match. Speaking after the game, captain Rohan Vaidya said the side played with the mentality of taking the match to the last over from the start. "We knew the dew would increase and the spinners would struggle to grip the ball. So our plan was to keep the run rate around six until the 40th over and then play the big shots in the last ten. What Dev did in the final over shows his mental maturity—he did not take a risk off the very first ball, he waited for the delivery," he said. The Australian captain admitted 312 was 20 runs short on that pitch. "We lost momentum by losing wickets in the last ten overs. Between the 45th and 50th we needed at least 70, but we stopped at 52," he said. Statistically, several things stood out. India scored 74 in the last ten overs while Australia managed only 52—a 22-run gap that proved decisive. The two sides conceded 23 extras between them, partly because of a wet ball. Vaidya's 92 was the highest score of the match, while Chauhan was the only bowler with three wickets. For Australia, McKenzie took three but went at 7.65 an over. At the end of the series, Vaidya was also named player of the series, having made 218 runs across three matches. The win answered some questions for India ahead of a crowded calendar, but raised new debates. Malhotra's place in the middle order now looks close to certain, while the fast-bowling rotation policy is being questioned—Nair's expensive spell has intensified the argument for developing a specialist death bowler. For Australia, the defeat points to a familiar problem: failing to take wickets through the middle overs and losing momentum in the final ten. In short, this match was an illustration of how 312 is no safe total in limited-overs cricket—especially when dew is falling and the opposition has a captain capable of a 90-run innings. India stayed calm under pressure, kept the arithmetic alive to the end, and claimed a series that was, throughout, a test of mental resilience.