Guwahati: Rookie left-arm paceman Jason Behrendorff bowled one of the best spells in T20I cricket in recent times as Australia registered a crushing nine-wicket victory over India in the second T20 of the three-match series to level the series 1-1.
Behrendorff’s brilliance destroyed the Indian batting from where they never really recovered and it Moises Henriques and Travis Head with the bat, who held their nerve in the run-chase and cruised to a comfortable victory at the end. The left-arm paceman’s performance might just fetch him an IPL contract in the upcoming auctions. Australia also snapped India’s seven-match unbeaten streak against them.
Earlier, deciding to bowl first, the visitors were off to a flying start with Behrendorff removing both Rohit Sharma (8) and Virat Kohli (0) in the very first over. The left-arm quickie handed the Indian skipper his first duck in 47 T20I’s as the pacer returned back to scalp two more in the form of Shikhar Dhawan (8) and Manish Pandey (6) to leave the hosts reeling at 27/4 at one point of time.
However, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav tried to resurrect the innings with a 33-run stand that was broken when the former Indian skipper danced down the crease to play an Adam Zampa delivery but instead got stumped for 13 runs in the process. Jadhav too fell to the Australian leg-spinner for 27 and the Indians were in a spot of bother once again.
Hardik Pandya, who loves tonking big sixes and has an attacking style of play also could muster just 25 as the Indian innings never really gathered steam and thus, ended at 118 all out. Kuldeep Yadav scored 16 crucial runs at the end.
In reply, India couldn’t have asked for better start as both speedsters-Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar sent back David Warner and Aaron Finch for 2 and 8 runs respectively. But Travis Head (48 n.o) and Henriques (62 n.o) ensured that there were no more jitters as Australia easily clinched the important win which levels things up in the series.
It was one bad day for the hosts at the office as they were completely outplayed by a dominant Australian team.
Brief scores-
India- 118 all out (Kedar Jadhav 27, Hardik Pandya 25; Jason Behrendorff 4/21) lost to Australia 122/2 (Moises Henriques 62 n.o, Travis Head 48 n.o; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 1/9)