Australia posted 132/7 in 19 overs before rain stopped play in the second T20 International against India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) here on Friday.
It seemed the visiting bowlers have learnt from their mistakes they committed in the previous game as the hosts were once tottering at 101/7 in 16 overs. However, pacer K Khaleel Ahmed was clobbered for 19 runs in the 18th over as Australia managed to reach a respectable total.
However, with rain playing spoilsport again and again, the revised target for India based on the Duckworth-Lewis (D/L) method is yet to be decided.
Pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 2/20 from his three overs, while Khaleel also scalped a couple of wickets, but leaked 39 runs from four overs.
Put in to bat, Australia kept on receiving jolts at regular intervals after a poor start. Bhuvneshwar gave an early blow to the hosts by dismissing Aaron Finch on his very second ball. The Aussie opener departed on a duck with the hosts' scorecard reading 1/1.
Just when it looked Australia were recovering, Khaleel sent back Chris Lynn (13) making the scoreline read 27/2. With the addition of eight runs in Australia's scorecard, Khaleel struck again to dismiss opener D Arcy Short (14) in the sixth over.
Last match hero Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis failed to replicate their show and contributed 19 and four runs respectively as Australia were reeling at 62/5 in 11 overs.
Their dismissal saw Ben McDermott (32) in the middle but things worsened for Australia as chinaman Kuldeep Yadav sent back Alex Carey (4), while Bhuvneshwar picked his second, dismissing Nathan Coulter-Nile, who showed some fireworks with a nine-ball 18.
With Australia at 101/7, McDermott and Andrew Tye (12) showed some resistence, adding 31 runs for the eighth wicket and the duo also hammered young Khaleel for 19 runs in the 18th over before rain stopped play.
Brief Score: Australia 132/7 in 19 overs (Ben McDermott 32, Glenn Maxwell 19; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2/20) vs India
--IANS
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