Led by their spinners and a vital pair of inroads from Shiyan Dube, India impressively defended what had initially seemed a slightly light total to take an unassailable 2-1 lead in the T20I series on a Gold Coast surface that both sides agreed had shades of the subcontinent about it.

From 121 for 2 after 14 overs, India were only able to post 167 largely due to the key breakthroughs provided by Adam Zampa,  back in the side after the birth of his second child, and late-overs brilliance of Nathan Elllis.

But Australia shed wickets at regular intervals in the first stage of their chase before collapsing in a heap to lose 7 for 28. Axar Patel conceded just 20 off his four overs, including 12 dot balls, while Dube claimed the key wicket of Tim David. Varun Chakravarthy’s final delivery of the evening all but sealed the contest when Glenn Maxwell, returning from his broken wrist, completely failed to pick a googly.

The result left a large proportion of the 20,470 crowd delighted and meant that the best Australia could hope for is a share of the series in the final game at the Gabba on Saturday.

Axar only had a limited role with the ball in the first three matches of the series; India didn’t bowl in Canberra, he wasn’t used at the MCG, then he returned 0 for 35 in Hobart. Here, however, he came to the fore, as his darting left-arm spin proved very difficult to combat.

Matthew Short, back in his favoured opening role but one he has conceded is probably not realistic to have at the T20 World Cup, had dominated the early stages of the chase before falling lbw sweeping at Axar when India successfully reviewed the not out decision. Axar then defeated Josh Inglis, a player who looked rusty after a period on the sidelines, when he charged down the pitch.

As in the previous match, Mitchell Marsh had not had a huge amount of strike early in the chase but was starting to move through the gears. Dube dropped a slower delivery in short, it was very much in Marsh’s wheelhouse, and the pull went flat towards deep square leg where Arshdeep Singh took an excellent running catch around the boundary. However, Dube’s big moment was to come.

David launched him for a huge six over long-on – it wasn’t far from striking the overhanging roof – but Dube’s revenge only took one delivery. Banging the ball in short, David was hurried into a pull and top edged into the covers.

When Josh Philippe spliced to short midwicket two overs later it was another game that needed Maxwell to salvage it but having not batted in the middle since mid-September, that was always a tall order. The dominance of the visiting spinners was perhaps a little warning to Australia ahead of the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka early next year where the types of surfaces on offer could vary.

Abhishek Sharma had been dropped second ball of the match by Xavier Bartlett, a running chance at deep point where he may have been distracted by another fielder, and when Abhishek deposited Zampa’s second ball of the series straight down the ground for six India were a healthy 56 for 0 in the seventh over. However, two balls later Zampa evened the ledger when Abhishek tried to repeat the stroke against a googly and was safely held at long-on by David.

Zampa was then held back until the second half of the innings and it threatened to be a rough night. In the 13th over Suryakumar took him for two sixes over deep midwicket as the India captain looked set to kick start a late surge for his team. However, Suryakumar picked out David in the deep – who held on his with fingertips – and when Zampa returned for his final over in the 17th of the innings he had an impact.

Tilak Varma gloved a sweep which popped up for Inglis to gather, then three balls later Australia successfully reviewed for an lbw against Jitesh Sharma when he missed a sweep.

His first wicket ended Dube’s experimental innings at No. 3 when he played across a slightly slower delivery. Then at the start of the 15th over he finished Gill’s rather laboured stay, although which grew in value as the night wore on, with a back-of-the-hand slower ball. He closed out with the 19th over, homing in outside off with wide yorkers and changes of pace. Occasionally he got a little too wide and was called, but none of the batters could get him away. In the end, however, as the pitch continued to slow up, India still had more than enough.

Brief scores:
India 167 for 8 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 28, Shubman Gill 46,Shivam Dube 22, Suryakumar Yadav 20, Washigton Sundar 12, Axar Patel 21*; Xavier Bartlett 1-26, Nthan  Ellis 3-21, Marcus Stoinis 1-41, Adam Zampa 3-45) beat Australia 119 in 18.2 overs  (Mitchell Marsh 30, Maththew Short 25, Josh Inglis 12, Tim David 14, Josh Phillipe 10, Marcus Stoinis 17; Arshdeep Singh 1-22, Jasprit Bumrah 1-27, Varun Chakravarthy 1-25, Washington Sundar  3-03, Axar Patel 2-20 ,Shivam  Dube 2-20) by 48 runs

[Cricinfo]