India vs Australia, 2nd T20I report card: Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli earn full marks, Rishabh Pant flops at Bengaluru

Australia chased down 191 with seven wickets to spare as Glenn Maxwell hit a brilliant hundred in response to Virat Kohli’s first innings rampage. The victory helped Australia complete a 2-0 sweep of India as the hosts lost their first bilateral T20I series at home since 2016. Here is our report card from the second T20I at Chinnaswamy Stadium.

India

KL Rahul - 7/10

Rahul carried on from where he had left off at Vizag and raced to 46 at a strike rate of 200 before Nathan Coulter-Nile deceived him with a 119kmph bumper. The opening batsman hit consecutive sixes off Jhye Richardson and Pat Cummins and appeared in pristine touch with his effortless hitting. However, just like in the first T20I, he could not convert it into a bigger knock. His form should prompt India to give him a short stint at least in the ODIs that follow.

Shikhar Dhawan - 2/10

Dhawan played the perfect second fiddle to Rahul and was content rotating the strike even as the latter went about smashing the Aussie bowlers. But, he was slow to begin with and consumed way too many balls before throwing his wicket away with a poor inside out stroke off Behrendorff.

Virat Kohli - 10/10

Kohli looked in pristine touch at Vizag but couldn’t convert it to something substantial, however it was ironed out at the Chinnaswamy as he took the attack to the Australians, smashing a brilliant 72 in 38 balls. A knock studded with six sixes and two fours. The Indian skipper took his time settling in, moving along to 29 in 21 balls, and then unfurled a hat-trick of sixes off Nathan Coulter-Nile. He raced past his half-century and alongside MS Dhoni and later, Dinesh Karthik, slammed 91 runs in the final six overs for India.

Rishabh Pant - 1/10

Pant repeatedly tried to execute the cut shot against D’Arcy Short’s wrist spin but found the fielder twice and missed the third attempt. Frustrated by the outcome of the three shots and lured by Short’s full-length floater, Pant slogged with all his might down the ground next ball and was at the receiving end of a brilliant catch from Richardson.

MS Dhoni - 9/10

A vintage Dhoni was on display at the Chinnaswamy as the wicket-keeper batsman played some outrageous strokes in his 23-ball 40. Walking in with India’s run-rate declining, Dhoni was quick to transfer the pressure in the company of Kohli. Along with the skipper he was involved in an outstanding century partnership while dispelling the notion that his big hitting skills were on the wane. With the ODIs coming up, Dhoni’s form is a welcome sign for India.

Dinesh Karthik - 6/10

Karthik had less than one over to make an impact but reinstated his status as the finisher with boundaries off the first two balls he faced. He walked in and slammed Cummins for a four through short fine leg first ball and followed it up with a cheeky slash over short third man next ball. He left the final flourish to Kohli and finished on 8 off 3 balls.

Vijay Shankar - 6/10

Vijay Shankar impressed with the ball, bowling a back of a length channel and mixing up his pace quite cleverly until he got very predictable in the final over that leaked 13. The medium pacer opened the attack and was effective with his length at the Chinnaswamy. He managed to prize out the big wickets of Aaron Finch and Short but leaked at over nine runs an over. The two wickets he picked up might prompt the management to give him longer spells with the ball in the ODIs.

Krunal Pandya - 4/10

Krunal conceded 11 off his first over but gave away just 13 in his next two, angling the ball into the right hander and denying room to the batsman. His flighted deliveries went missing, though, and he paid the price in his ten-run final over when Maxwell slammed his predictable length and pace down the ground for six.

Jasprit Bumrah - 5/10

Bumrah went wicketless but once again did his bit in restricting Australia’s surge in the run-chase with a five-run penultimate over. He gave Siddharth Kaul nine to defend in the last over but Australia managed to win with two balls to spare. Bumrah uncharacteristically leaked 12 in his third over but ensured he kept India in the game with his superb 19th over.

Yuzvendra Chahal - 1/10

Chahal came a cropper against Maxwell’s power hitting and failed to deliver the goods on a surface he is used to bowling at for Royal Challengers Bangalore. The leg-spinner had dismissed Maxwell five times in all T20s (International + IPL) before the second T20I and had leaked just 46 runs in 37 balls. However, on Wednesday, the Australian smashed 34 in 15 balls off the leg-spinner who conceded 47 in his four wicketless overs.

Siddharth Kaul - 2/10

Kaul had the arduous task defending nine in the final over against a well-set Maxwell and came second-best but his figures had turned sour even before that. The Sunrisers Hyderabad seamer began well, cleaning up Marcus Stoinis in his first over that went for just four runs. In the death, an area he had done well for Hyderabad in IPL 2018, Kaul leaked 30 in his final two overs with an unpardonable above-waist no-ball in the 18th over that went for six.

Australia

D’Arcy Short - 9/10

Short, who was criticised for a profound weakness against spin, seems to have found a way past it as he milked the Indian spinners in his crucial 28-ball 40. Short made 15 off 9 balls against the spinners and appeared to be in control except when Pant gave him a life by shelling a chance at point. His 73-run stand with Maxwell gave Australia a stable base to attack from. His left-arm wrist spin also seems to be a decent work-in-progress and the Big Bash hero might just have found his mojo in International cricket.

Marcus Stoinis - 1/10

After being denied an over with the ball despite the primary bowlers leaking runs, Stoinis, opening the batting again, went hard at Kaul’s length ball but missed it completely to be cleaned up for seven. The Melbourne Stars batsman has disappointed in his maiden two outings at the top for Australia.

Aaron Finch - 1/10

The Australian skipper had another forgettable outing as he struggled with his timing and eventually top edged a back of a length delivery from Vijay Shankar to depart for another single-digit score, his eighth in the last 10 T20I matches. Since his record-breaking 172 against Zimbabwe, Finch has had a disastrous run in the shortest format of the game.

Glenn Maxwell - 10/10

An incredible innings from Maxwell saw Australia overhaul India’s target at Chinnaswamy on Wednesday. Walking in at 22/2, Maxwell was once again pivotal in transferring the pressure back onto the Indians. His half-century came up in 28 balls, but the all-rounder took just 22 more deliveries to reach his century. He reserved special treatment for his usual nemesis, Chahal, slamming him for 34 runs in 15 balls, an onslaught that included three sixes and a four.

Peter Handscomb - 7/10

After a mess up in the penultimate over at Vizag, Handscomb was quite sensible at Bengaluru, rotating the strike and putting Maxwell at the right end often. His 20 off 18 balls had just one boundary but included 14 singles, a double and just two dot balls. He kept his nerve in the final over and ensured he wasn’t wasting any balls by switching over the strike to Maxwell in the only ball he faced.

Ashton Turner - NA

Nathan Coulter-Nile - 2/10

Coulter-Nile removed Rahul with a well disguised slower bumper and then used this very pace variation to contain the scoring rate until Kohli decided to take him on in the 16th over. Having given away just 11 in his first two overs, Coulter-Nile conceded 22 in his third over to finish his spell at 1/33 in three overs.

Pat Cummins - 1/10

Cummins’ back of a length deliveries had reaped rich dividends at Vizag but here it sat up to be hit and the Indian batsmen were too good to miss out. The Australian seamer leaked 22 in his first two overs and returned in the final over to concede a further 18 runs. Lack of variations and a monotonous length worked against the Aussie on this belter.

Adam Zampa - 8/10

Zampa was the pick of Australia’s bowlers in the face of the onslaught by Kohli and Dhoni. The leg-spinner denied the Indians room and let his deliveries skid on with the angle to completely negate the off-side for the batsmen. He was hard to get away and leaked just 23 in his four overs, critical numbers considering how the run-chase came really close.

Jhye Richardson - 1/10

Richardson was yet again expensive despite finding swing with the new ball and also in the latter stage of the innings. Richardson either landed the ball in the arc of the batsmen or tried short balls that sat up to be hit. On a small ground, with the ball coming onto the bat, Richardson appeared short of ideas and ended up conceding runs at over eleven runs per over.

Jason Behrendorff - 8/10 The new ball bowler for Australia yet again delivered as he found swing and the right length for the surface early on. Though he leaked 12 in his second over, Behrendorff returned to dismiss Dhawan in another three-run over and ended with figures of 1/18 in three overs. He was surprisingly ignored for the last over despite being impressive early on.

Rating chart: 10-9: Excellent, 8-7: Good, 6-5: Average, 4-3: Poor, 2-1: Very poor