Left-arm pacer Jason Behrendorff’s sensational spell set up an eight-wicket win for Australia against India in the second T20I at the ACA Barsapara Cricket Stadium here on Tuesday.
Chasing India’s modest 118, the visitors cruised home in the 16th over, with Moises Henriques (62 not out, 46b, 4x4, 4x6) and Travis Head (48 not out, 34b, 5x4, 1x6) taking the team home after the openers — Aaron Finch and captain David Warner — had fallen cheaply.
Reasons to celebrate
Hosting its first International match on a newly-laid track, the pitch offered the towering Behrendorff enough reasons to celebrate. His pace and control rattled the Indian top-order as he sent back Rohit Sharma and skipper Virat Kohli off the first six deliveries.
The former started with two boundaries off the first three balls of the innings but paid the price for his lethargic feet movement as a Behrendorff delivery cut in slightly to catch him off-guard.
Even before India could recover from the loss, the prolific Kohli went for a duck — his first in T20Is, and the third against Australia across all formats this year.
The Indian captain’s attempted flick caught the inside edge, the ball lobbing back to bowler Behrendorff.
The host plunged into bigger crisis, losing Manish Pandey in the third over. Behrendorff came up with another fine delivery that moved away and took the outside edge as the batsman played away from the body.
Behrendorff also got rid of the other Indian opener, Shikhar Dhawan, in his third over.
Trying to break out of the shell, the left-hander chipped the ball over the in-field. Warner, running back a few paces from the inner circle, came up with a superb catch.
Behrendorff completed his quota of four overs, claiming four wickets and giving away just 21 runs.
Zampa takes over
Leg-spinner Adam Zampa then took over.
He first got former India captain M.S. Dhoni (13) stumped off a ball turned sharply, the wicketkeeper Paine bringing off a sharp stumping.
He then removed Kedar Jadhav, the only Indian batsman who found the boundary at regular intervals.
Timing his shots to perfection, Jadhav raced to 27 off as many deliveries with three fours and a six before being bamboozled by a googly from Zampa.
Hardik Pandya (25, 23b, 1x6) provided a late charge to help India reach a total that proved inadequate.
