T20 world champions India survive almighty Japanese scare

Sano (Japan), Sep 22 (UNI) India have survived an almighty scare, defeating Japan by two runs in the one-off T20I here on Tuesday. The Japanese, ranked 41st in the world, needed eight runs off Axar Patel's final over but the experienced spinner held his nerve, much to the disappointment of the healthy home crowd. The match looked destined to be rained off with some unrelenting weather at the ground, northwest of Tokyo, but after three hours of waiting around, a toss took place with India's Shreyas Iyer electing to bat first in a five-overs-per-side contest. The wicket was slow, the…