Andre Borovec bats for Australia's intent despite engine failure

After a tight win in the first T20I in Visakhapatnam, India emerged victorious in a relatively one-sided contest in the second game in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday, November 26.

In their run-chase, Australia had no other option but to go for the jugular after conceding 235 runs in the first innings. The tourists lost wickets at regular intervals before a breathtaking 81-run partnership off 38 balls between Marcus Stoinis and Tim David gave them a glimmer of hope of scripting an improbable win. In the end, stand-in skipper Matthew Wade hit some lusty blows as Australia finished on 191/9 in their 20 overs, losing by 44 runs and giving India a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.

After the match, Australia's stand-in head coach Andre Borovec lauded his team for showing intent and said that he wouldn't be too perturbed with the result as long as the players stick to their plans and only err in execution.

"It's just that we were behind a couple more wickets at the halfway mark there, four to one. It's always ifs, buts, and maybes, isn't it? But we just fell behind the game a little bit. We knew we probably didn't have the breathing space that India had going into those last ten overs. One of the key pillars of our game is intent. And you couldn't fault that throughout the innings. Will there be mistakes made? Of course. But if we're making mistakes with good intent, good decisions, good plans, and if the execution doesn't go quite right, well, we're quite happy to accept that," Borovec was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

The 45-year-old explained the importance of the first two balls of any over in the shortest format of the game. He admitted that the Indian batters made good use of the first couple of balls in the over, making it difficult for his bowlers.

"The first two balls in an over can be quite important in T20 cricket. If you're conceding boundaries on those two balls, it can be difficult to get back. You've got less resources at your disposal as you've shown a couple of deliveries… if you've bowled a bouncer. What we saw tonight was that at those moments, the Indian players were getting ahead in the count and almost getting a good read on what potential ball might come down at them. I think zeroing in on those first two balls and how we can structure those better - that's usually a good starting point," Borovec said.

Andre Borovec reveals why Jason Behrendorff was dropped in 2nd T20I

In the high-scoring first T20I in Visakhapatnam, left-arm pacer Jason Behrendorff was one of the most economical bowlers. However, he was dropped for the second game as Adam Zampa replaced him in the playing XI. Borovec explained that he wanted to go in with two spinners (Tanveer Sangha and Zampa) as next year's T20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA is expected to be held on pitches that could aid the slower bowlers.

"We've got a few things to consider that we need to see different players in different conditions and one of the considerations today was to have a look at two spinners. We thought that was going to be a good attacking option for us, so we decided to structure our bowling around that. We had a great conversation with Jase about how good his bowling was. Also, when you look back at it, it was probably one of his better bowling performances for Australia. So it was a really tough decision but one we built around the fact that these conditions, we thought, were going to help spin a little bit more than perhaps Vizag," Borovec stated.

He also mentioned that Australia didn't start well with the ball and allowed India to go ahead of the game in the Powerplay itself. However, he was happy with how the bowlers pulled things back in the middle-overs.

"The irony was when the dew came, we had some nice overs there around about the seventh to the 11th over. It just shows that in T20 cricket sometimes things like that happen that go against the grain. We are probably a little bit disappointed with our execution in the first six. And that's where we thought the sweet spot was for taking wickets and giving our spinners a chance to bowl at some new batters. I was really proud of that fightback in that early middle-overs period. Then of course the dew came in and it just made it so difficult to execute, but you can't fault the endeavour and the plans with the bowlers."

Borovec was also happy with the intent that Steve Smith has shown at the top of the order in the first couple of games. The talismanic batter has scored 71 runs in two games at a strike rate of 124.56 so far.

"We have got a number of things we're looking at. We've got ten games to fit some of that stuff in. Not all of it is possible. One of the things we had in our planning coming into this series was to have a look at Steve up the top. And we've had a chance to do that now and again. We've been extremely happy with that intent that he's shown with the bat," Borovec concluded.