Jason Behrendorff has a first-class bowling average of a shade under 23. For long, he was one of the hidden gems of the Australian domestic system. Australian journalists had to google his name after Allan Border backed him to break into the national side in 2016.
You could see why Border was a fan. On Tuesday, the seamer, who has previously removed both Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar for blobs while playing in the Champions League T20, mowed through the Indian top-order like a seasoned pro. The hosts, put into bat because of the dew factor, might have as well thrown in the towel after the first five overs.
Behrendorff accounted for both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli within the first six balls. The skipper was sent back for zero, his first in T20Is. India, looking to seal the series at the first time of asking, have had problems against nippy left-armers, and Behendorff again proved that theory to devastating effect. His spell of 4-0-21-4 wasn't hostile in the true sense of the word, but it cut off the oxygen supply for the middle order.
When fans started pouring into the stadium — the city's first in seven years — they were hoping for something different. Assamese songs blasted through the turnstiles, while families, young and old, started filling the stands an hour before the coin toss.
Around 28,000 — Barsapara's capacity — were decked in the blue of India, while a few 100 along the periphery sat around LED TVs near the stadium to follow the match. They were stunned into silence in the first 20 minutes itself.
A target of 119 was never going to be enough, and so it proved. Moises Henriques and Travis Head bludgeoned their way past it with 27 balls remaining. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah got the same sort of purchase early on and briefly raised visions of an unlikely victory.
Henriques and Head, though, had other ideas. The dew made life hard for the spinners (Kuldeep went for 0/46 in four and Yuzvendra Chahal conceded 29 in 3.3) and the visitors did not need a second invitation.
The caravan shifts to the third and final match of the series in Hyderabad on October 13.