India vs Australia: Damp wicket helped India destroyer Jason Behrendorff, says Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Left-arm pacer Jason Behrendorff tore apart the Indian batting line-up with a spell of 4/21 to set up Australia's eight-wicket win chasing a paltry 119 to win.

Courtesy: PTI

New Delhi: It won't be wrong to assess that India lost steam in the first six overs itself of the second T20I in Guwahati on Tuesday, thanks to left-arm pacer Jason Behrendorff who tore apart the Indian batting line-up with a spell of 4/21, which Bhuvneshwar Kumar feels was a result of the Australian rookie's skill as well as the damp wicket due to rain preceding the match.    

Playing only his second T20 international, Behrendorff removed Rohit Sharma (8) and Virat Kohli (0) in the first over of the match and the hosts could never recover after that, folding up for 118 off the last ball of their innings.

"He (Behrendorff) bowled really well. He made full use of the wicket. It was the perfect kind of wicket for the line and length he bowled," Bhuvneshwar said after the match.

"That's (swing at pace) his natural thing. He swings the ball, he's got pace. Best thing is (he bowled) whatever the line and length (was) needed for this wicket," he added.

Bhuvneshwar felt Australia got the perfect conditions to play to their strength, i.e., fast bowling.

"It was a tough wicket for batting. Rain was around; it was a damp wicket. So Australian bowlers made the most of the wicket," he said

Kedar Jadhav (27) was India's top-scorer, followed by Hardik Pandya (25).

"I think we tried to rebuild it. But we couldn't do it. We can't really put a finger on someone and say it was their fault. So it was just an off day for us," he said.

India made a fighting start in defence of the meager total, as Jasprit Bumrah (1/25) and Bhuvneshwar (1/9) removed dangerous openers David Warner (2) and Aaron Finch (8) cheaply.

But a rollicking century partnership between Moises Henriques (62*) and Travis Head (48*) dashed India's hopes to run Aussies close. 

"We tried our best to take an initial wicket. But if you have to win the (low-scoring) match, you have to keep taking wickets, especially in the middle overs, which we couldn't do. I would say they bowled better than us," Bhuvneshwar explained.

Both Bhuvneshwar and Bumrah bowled three overs each without completing their quota. The pacer said that it was captain's call.

"There is something part of a strategy...what the captain is thinking, what he wants to do. He made us bowl three overs each in the Powerplay and we took a wicket each.

"It is up to him if he wanted us to bowl, we could have completed our quota. But that was his (Kohli's) thinking. We can't really say we could have bowled the way we began," he concluded.

(With PTI Inputs)