Australia beat India, level series 1-1

Guwahati : 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 yesterday.

Rookie 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 left-right 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.

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 Yuzvendar 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.