Josh Hazlewood wrote the story of Indian team's defeatImage Credit source: PTI

The Indian team has received a tough lesson before next year's T20 World Cup. In the second match of the T20 series, Team India had to face defeat by 4 wickets at the hands of Australia in Melbourne. Team India was punished for making strange changes in the batting order and was bundled out for just 125 runs while batting first. Such was the fate of Josh Hazlewood, who destroyed the Indian top order in a single spell. Then Australia achieved this target 40 balls earlier with the help of captain Mitchell Marsh's brilliant innings.

In this match played on Saturday 31 October at Melbourne Cricket Ground, two different scenes of batting were seen. While the Indian batsmen kept losing their wickets in front of Australia on the same pitch, Australia's top order wrote the story of the Indian team's defeat by scoring quick runs in the power play itself. But the big difference in this was Australian fast bowler Josh Hazlewood, who wreaked havoc on the Indian team.

Hazlewood demolished, Abhishek stood firm

The Indian team, batting first, lost its 5 wickets for just 49 runs in the 8th over. This happened because Hazlewood (3/13) spelled 4 consecutive overs and took 3 wickets while conceding only 13 runs, which included batsmen like Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Verma. But from the other side, Abhishek Sharma (68 runs, 37 balls) was scoring boundaries easily and in such a situation, he got the support of Harshit Rana (35). Both of them made a partnership of 56 runs, with the help of which Team India was successful in crossing 100 runs. However, even the lower order could not help much and the entire team collapsed for just 125 runs in 18.4 overs.

Marsh-Head's stormy batting ended the game

In contrast, the opening pair of Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh batted stormily for Australia. Both of them took the team beyond 50 runs in the 5th over itself. Trevid Head (28) was dismissed by Varun Chakraborty, after which Marsh (46) attacked and gave away 20 runs in the very first over of Kuldeep Yadav. However, he was also out in the same over but by that time Australia's victory was certain. After this, however, the Australian innings appeared to be faltering after coming very close to victory, in which Jasprit Bumrah took 2 consecutive wickets 2 runs before the target but by then it was too late for Team India. Australia achieved this target in 13.2 overs.

Team India's defeat after 17 years

This is only India's second win in T20 cricket on Melbourne grounds. The special thing is that India's last defeat here came against Australia 17 years ago in 2008. After that, the Indian team registered consecutive wins here, while only one match was inconclusive. With this victory, Australia has also taken a 1-0 lead in the 5-match series. The first match was washed out due to rain, due to which now Team India will have to win the remaining three matches to win the series.