India vs Australia 2nd T20I: Not The Performance We Wished For: Virat Kohli
Team India’s seven-match winning streak in T20Is against Australia came to an end in the second game of the ongoing three-match series as the visitors thrashed Virat Kohli & Co. by eight wickets in Guwahati to level the series.
Right from the toss till the last ball of the game, nothing went India’s way barring the two cracking fours Rohit Sharma hit off the first three balls of the match. On the next two deliveries, Jason Behrendorff dismissed Rohit and Virat Kohli to set the tone for his team. The left-arm pacer was not done yet and dismissed Manish Pandey and Shikhar Dhawan to leave the hosts reeling at 27 for 4. The Men in Blue never recovered from those early setbacks and were eventually bowled out for 118 on the last ball of the innings.
India, nonetheless, began their defense of the modest total in fine fashion by sending back both the Australian openers cheaply but brilliant knocks from Moises Henriques (62) and Travis Head (48) helped the visitors to chase down the total with utmost ease.
Speaking after the game, India skipper Virat Kohli admitted that the team did not turn up with the bat and also blamed the dew for the team’s failure to put more pressure with the ball as the game progressed.
Not the performance we wished for. We were not good enough with the bat. After the dew set in, it was very difficult to control the game. It is the attitude that matters the most. As a batsman you have two skills, one with the bat and the other on the field,” he said at the presentation ceremony.
Kohli also praised Behrendorff for his decisive spell.
Indeed, I thought the ball to Rohit was very good. His line and length was very tight. Then they build onto that. Credit to him for hitting the right areas. He definitely had a top class day today,” he added.
