Australia thump India by eight wickets at Guwahati to level Twenty20 International series 1-1
India had a forgettable outing with both bat and ball as Australia bounced back in the T20 series with a crushing eight-wicket win in the second game here yesterday. Rookier pacer Jason Behrendorff (4/21) ripped through the high-profile Indian batting to restrict the home team to a below par 118 at the Baraspara Stadium, which hosted its first international match. Later, Travis Head (48 off 34) and Moises Henriques (62 off 46) shared an unbeaten 109-run stand off 76 balls to fire Australia to a series levelling win in just 15.3 overs.
The victory was also Australia's first over India in eight T20 Internationals. The series decider will be played in Hyderabad on Friday. The lefthand-righthand combination of Head and Henriques took the game away from India after the visitors lost their dangerous openers, David Warner and Aaron Finch, by the third over.
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Australia's wicketkeeper Tim Paine (left) stumps MSâÂu00c2u0080Âu00c2u0088Dhoni during the second T20I at the Baraspara Stadium yesterday. Pic/AFP
India's ordinary show
After faltering with the bat, the Indian bowlers put up an ordinary performance, offering too many loose balls to Head and Henriques. The dew also was a factor with the ball not turning as much as it did in the first innings. The end result was that India's wrist spinners, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, leaked 75 runs in 7.3 overs. Yadav especially had an ordinary day as he bowled too many boundary balls to Head and Henriques, who hit a combined nine fours and five sixes. Four of those big hits came off Henriques's bat.
Earlier, Behrendorff, playing only his second international match, ended with dream figures of four for 21 in four overs. The 27-year-old from Western Australia swung the ball both ways on a helping pitch with Rohit Sharma (8), Shikhar Dhawan (2) and Virat Kohli (0) among his high-profile scalps. It was the first international game played at the venue and the packed crowd was in for a shock after Rohit hit two crisp fours in the opening over bowled by Behrendorff. Behrendorff showed remarkable maturity to bounce back from those two boundaries to trap Rohit plumb in front with an inswinger. Kohli departed two balls later after getting a faint inside edge while attempting a flick and the looping ball was caught by the left-arm pacer himself.
Spectacular Behrendorff
Behrendorff then had Manish Pandey caught behind with one that swung away just enough before Dhawan fell to a spectacular running catch by opposition captain David Warner. His spell of four overs was enough to break the backbone of Indian batting which was hardly tested in the ODI series. The figures were also Behrendorff's best in the T20 format. With India in deep trouble at 27 for four, Kedar Jadhav (27) and MS Dhoni (13) ended up with a 33-run stand. However, Australia were able to tighten India's noose in the middle overs through Adam Zampa (2/19). He had a charging Dhoni stumped with a perfect leg-spinner before finding Jadhav's stumps to leave hosts in tatters.
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