Australia rode on young left-arm pacer Jason Behrendorff's devastating opening spell to win by eight wickets against India in the second T20 international on Tuesday, squaring the three-match series 1-1.
Although Tuesday's defeat doesn't warrant any panic as far as the Indian camp is concerned, with the hosts having dominated the Aussies thus far, the defeat in Guwahati could have been avoided if it weren't for lack of judgement from an unlikely source.
Chasing a paltry 119 in 20 overs, the Australians found themselves in troubled waters after losing the in-form David Warner and Aaron Finch with not much on the board.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was spitting fire and Moises Henriques had just walked in. In the fifth over, Bhuvi bowled a beautiful delivery that had lateral movement away from the batsman. Henriques tentatively poked his bat outside off stump, only to be beaten all ends up.
While skipper Virat Kohli was boisterous in his appeal from covers, India didn't go for the review as Mahendra Singh Dhoni wasn't entirely sure if there was a nick. And as it turned out, there was in fact a faint edge as the ball crossed Henriques' bat.
MSD has made a name for himself with his sharp observations from behind the stumps when a DRS call is in play. Indian fans even coined the term 'Dhoni Review System' in honour of the former Indian captain's ingenuity. Now, there's no doubt that Dhoni can't be grudged for failing to spot that extremely faint edge, but one does wonder whether India would've gone on to win the match if he had.
You can watch the incident HERE.
Henriques and Travis Head then combined in an unbroken stand of 109 for the third wicket to take them to victory. Henriques hit four sixes and an identical number of boundaries to remain unbeaten on 62 for his second half century in T20. Head was not out on 48 as Australia completed a convincing victory.
The touring side, who lost the one-day series 4-1 and the first T20 by nine wickets, reached their target of 119 with 27 balls to spare at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati.
Playing only his second international match, the 27-year-old Behrendorff scythed through India's top order after Australia captain David Warner won the toss and chose to bowl. The left-arm paceman dismissed opening batsman Rohit Sharma and India captain Virat Kohli in his first over and then took the wickets of Shikhar Dhawan and Manish Pandey to reduce the hosts to 27-4 inside the first five overs.
"It was unbelievable. Bowling four (overs) upfront doesn't happen too often and I was lucky to do it," Behrendorff said during the innings break. "Bowling upfront and swinging the new ball is my strength and it is an honour to be opening the bowling for your country."
India never recovered from the terrible start and were all out for 118 in their 20 overs. Kedar Jadhav scored 27 and Hardik Pandya made 25 in the only notable contributions with the bat for the hosts. Leg-spinner Adam Zampa kept the pressure up on the Indian middle order, picking up two for 19 in his four overs.
Hyderabad will host the deciding match of the series on Friday.
(Inputs from Reuters)
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 "cricket, India v/s Australia, t20, Guwahati, virat kohli, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, MSD, Moises Henriques, Bhuvneshwar Kumar")
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