Glenn Maxwell's herculean batting effort took the game away from India | Getty
Glenn Maxwell scored an impressive century as Australia registered a comprehensive seven-wicket victory in the second T20 International in Bangalore to clinch the two-match series 2-0. This is also their maiden series win in the shortest format in India.
Maxwell made the mockery of the 191-run target as he notched up his third century in T20Is. He remained unbeaten till the end and scored 113 off 55 balls at a strike-rate of 205.45, including seven boundaries and nine sixes. Coming into bat after the fall of Aaron Finch, Maxwell stitched a 73-run partnership with D'Arcy Short (40) for the third-wicket and then shared an unbeaten 99-run stand with Peter Handscomb to guide Australia over the line with two balls to spare.
Speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony, India skipper Virat Kohli praised the visitors for their dominant show in both the games.
"Australia outplayed us in both games, they were more clinical with bat, ball and on the field. We put up a decent total, 190 is a good score on any ground, but there was too much dew around, and when Maxy plays an innings like that, you can't do too much," Kohli said.
"We would have liked to get across the line in at least this game but I can't be too hard on the bowlers due to the amount of dew,” he added.
Earlier, India rode on Virat Kohli's brilliant 72* off 38 balls and MS Dhoni's 40 off 23 balls to post 190 runs in 20 overs. Both of them looked in fine touch as Kohli smashed six sixes and two fours in his knock while Dhoni hit three fours and three sixes.
The focus now shifts towards the five-match ODI series where India will be looking to fine-tune their 15-member squad for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.
"Every team will look to fine-tune whatever they need to before the World Cup, and we'll keep doing that in the ODI series too, but we still want to win every match we play.
"We wanted to give everyone some game time, we've seen how these guys react in different situations, and we have a few more games to see how they keep doing under pressure," Kohli said.
The ODI series will kick-start on March 2 at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium in Hyderabad.
