IND v AUS, 2nd T20I Review: Something to cheer for Australia; hosts left cold and dry at Guwahati

After all the struggle against the Indians in T20 format, Australia has finally managed to pull back something in their favor at Guwahati. It was a fabulous toss to win for the Aussie skipper David Warner and he had no hesitation in bowling first. Jason Behrendorff, one of the most talked about fast bowlers in the Australian domestic circuit these days, showed he’s worth all the attention with a sensational first over.

Rohit Sharma raced off to a brilliant start by notching two boundaries in the first 3 balls and what happened next was completely against the run of play. Behrendorff trapped Rohit in front of the stumps first and followed it with the wicket of Virat Kohli. The skipper was left in no man’s land with the speedster bowling an absolute peach of an inswing and after taking an inside edge, it popped off the pads into the bowler’s hands.

Behrendorff picked up from where he left in the next over and Manish Pandey was made to walk back to the gallery thanks to some clever piece of bowling from the 27-year-old. In his 3rd over, he got Shikhar Dhawan’s wicket courtesy some fantastic fielding from the skipper Warner. India was four down very cheaply and MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav tried to stabilize the sinking ship.

The duo did bat sensibly up to a point, with Jadhav playing some fine shots and Dhoni kept giving himself some time to get settled. With India hitting the fifty mark just before the 10th over, things looked a little better, but Adam Zampa sent Dhoni and Jadhav back in successive overs to add more insult to injury.

Though Hardik Pandya was at the crease, the scoring rate never escalated as the bowlers were right under the skin of the batsmen. It was a tough road to drive on for the batters and though Pandya tried a little, India could manage only 118 runs in their 20 overs. Behrendorff returned with figures of 4/21 whilst Adam Zampa played the Dark Knight here, registering figures of 2/19.

“A walk in the park” run chase

Not on many occasions did India get humiliated this way before, especially the spinners. With David Warner and Aaron Finch getting dismissed inside the first three overs, the new ball bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah kept the crowd going. But what followed next came in as a shocker.

Many expected Marcus Stoinis to walk in at 3, but Warner sent his SRH teammate Moises Henriques. Henriques has time and again performed brilliantly at number three in the IPL and he did full justice to his captain’s backing. Joining him in the process of bringing down the morale of the Indian bowlers which was about to touch the moon was Travis Head and finally, a good innings came out of his bat.

The best part of the partnership was the duo didn’t allow the bowlers to take advantage of the early wickets. They kick-started by picking up ones and twos and wasted no deliveries for the sake of settling in. Singles and doubles were the need of the hour and that’s what helped them get to a situation where they could go full monty without worrying about the result.

Head and Henriques kept striking boundaries at regular intervals and this brought the required rate under 5. The spinners failed to create any havoc and this was the catalyst behind their downfall. After the 10th over, they stood at 67 and India fielders remained mere spectators post then.

In the 15th over of the game, Henriques struck two sixes off Kuldeep Yadav which brought the required runs to single digits. They brought up their hundred run stand in the same over and in a matter of time, Henriques spanked a boundary down the ground to round off the chase. The game was done in 15.3 overs and this will be a huge boost for them. Henriques finished with 62 off 46 balls with 4 fours and four sixes, whilst Travis Head amassed 48 off 34 balls, which included 1 six and five fours.

Brief Scores

India: 118 all out in 20 overs (Kedar Jadhav 27; Jason Behrendorff 4/21, Adam Zampa 2/19)

Australia: 122/2 in 15.3 overs (Moises Henriques 62*, Travis Head 48*)

Player of the match: Jason Beherendorff