Glenn Maxwell scored a blistering hundred, as Australia thumped India by 7 wickets in the second T-20 international at Bangalore on Wednesday.
The home side made 3 changes by bringing in Shikhar Dhawan, Vijay Shankar and Siddharth Kaul for Rohit Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Mayank Markhande , while the visitors went in with an unchanged line up.
After being put into bat by Aaron Finch, India’s opening pair of Shikhar Dhawan and Lokesh Rahul started steadily, but picked up the scoring rate, as the duo added 61 runs, before the Karnataka batsman holed out to Jason Behrendorff off Nathan Coulter Nile for a quickfire 47.
Dhawan who struggled to get going fell in a controversial circumstances, as he was caught by Marcus Stoinis off Behrendorff.
Dashing batsman Rishabh Pant was dismissed for 1 as Richardson took a sensational catch at long off, as India were reduced to 74 for three in the 11th over.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was criticised for his slow knock on Sunday, showed a lot more intent from the word go as he started with a six over midwicket off Short. Kohli in the 16th over smashed Coulter-Nile for three sixes in a row, before bringing up his 20th fifty. He smashed an unbeaten 72 off 38 balls. His knock comprised of two fours and six sixes.
The pair of Kohli and Dhoni added 100 runs in 49 balls, before Pat Cummins broke through by getting the former Indian captain for an electrifying 40.
Dinesh Karthik struck two boundaries, and the 30 year old star batsman finished the innings with a six, as India in their allotted 20 overs posted an imposing total of 190 runs.
Chasing a target of 191, the visitors started badly, as they lost wickets of Stoinis and Finch to Kaul and Shankar respectively.
Short and Maxwell added 73 runs for the third wicket off 43 balls, before the former was dismissed in the 12th over.
Peter Handscomb joined Glenn Maxwell, as the duo took the Indian attack to the cleaners by adding an unbroken stand of 99 runs for the fourth wicket.
The hard hitting all rounder smashed Yuzvendra Chahal for two sixes, including a reverse hit, to tilt the game in Aussies favour.
With 14 needing in tow overs, Maxwell brought up his third T-20I hundred, when he jammed a yorker off Bumrah down to the leg side. His enterprising knock of 113 runs came off just 55 balls.
In the last over he smashed Siddarth Kaul over long off for a six, and a boundary to extra cover to bring up Australia’s maiden T20I series win over India. The Aussies overhauled the target of 191 in 19.4 overs.
Vijay Shankar was India’s best bowler as he ended up with figures of 2/38 in 4 overs.
Maxwell was declared the Man of the Match and Series for his outstanding performance with the bat.
The focus now shifts to the five one dayers where the first ODI would be played at Hyderabad on March 2.