'Worrying': Aussies suffer woeful collapse as India takes series lead

Australia lost 9-52 in a dismal collapse as India took a 2-1 lead in the T20 series on the Gold Coast on Thursday night.

The hosts were in a strong position at 1-67 in the ninth over, chasing 168 for victory, before a series of woefully executed shots laid waste to the promising start and exposed the tail.

The Indians rolled Australia for 119 to win the fourth of five matches by 48 runs and ensure they cannot lose the series, which will finish with a game in Brisbane on Saturday night.

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Left-arm orthodox spinner Axar Patel took 2-20 from four overs after striking an unbeaten 21 from 11 balls to earn himself man-of-the-match honours.

The first Australian batter to fall was Matt Short, who was trapped lbw while trying to sweep Patel. He lost his wicket for 25 as Australia fell to 1-37.

Josh Inglis walked to the middle and combined with Mitch Marsh for a 24-run partnership, before the former charged down the wicket to Patel and had his stumps demolished. He departed for 10 as the hosts fell to 2-67.

Marsh then mistimed a short slower ball sent down by Arshdeep Singh, holing out to deep backward square leg and losing his wicket for 30.

Tim David (14) also departed with a mistimed shot, skying a Shivam Dube delivery to mid-off when he tried to pull a short ball with a touch of pace taken off it.

Next to go was Josh Philippe (10), who scooped a catch to midwicket off the bowling of Singh.

Glenn Maxwell, returning from his broken wrist, gave himself room to take a huge swing at Varun Chakravarthy, but the leg-spinner beat the danger man with a googly and bowled him for 2.

The last of Australia's recognised batters fell when Marcus Stoinis, who had peeled off 17 from 18 balls to spark a revival of sorts, went for a reverse sweep off the bowling of off-spinner Washington Sundar and was trapped lbw.

The wickets of Xavier Bartlett (0), Ben Dwarshuis (5) and Adam Zampa (0) followed as India completed the rout in 18.2 overs.

Asked for his take on Australia's collapse on the Fox Cricket broadcast, Australian great Mark Waugh described it as "worrying".

"The pitch has been a pretty good one to bat on. It's slowed up a little, but it's been a very even surface," Waugh said.

"You'd be disappointed if you're 1-67 chasing 167 and you're going to be beaten by 40 runs. I don't think Australia will be too happy with their batting performance."

Marsh, Australia's captain, was left to rue a lack of notable partnerships.

"I think in those chases you just need a couple of partnerships, and we just weren't able to quite get that big one to give us momentum going into the back end of the innings," Marsh said.

"Fair play to India; they are a world-class team."

Shubman Gill scored a match-high 46 from 39 balls at the top of India's order, as Abhishek Sharma (28), Dube (22), Patel (21) and Suryakumar Yadav (20) chipped in with their own notable innings.

The pick of Australia's bowlers was paceman Nathan Ellis, who claimed 3-21 from four overs, while leg-spinner Adam Zampa took 3-45 off four overs.