Australia have some of the best batters in the world, says Ben McDermott
Australian batsman Ben McDermott Friday said his side will have the edge over India in the third and final T20 International in Sydney after rain denied the visitors a shot at drawing parity in the series here.
Australia head into Sunday's game with a 1-0 lead after winning the opening T20 in Brisbane on Wednesday by four runs.
"It is not every day you have the opportunity to win a series for Australia (against a team like India). We're doing the right things and we've got one win on the board, we just need that one more," McDermott said after the match in which Australia posted 132/7 in 19 overs.
The target was first revised to 137 in 19 overs for India, curtailed to 90 in 11 overs and 46 from five overs. But the visiting side could not even lay foot on the crease to give any of the targets a shot owing to the weather.
"It was very frustrating especially with the rain following us around (in all T20 matches). We had set ourselves up nicely for the 19th over but we lost momentum with Jasprit Bumrah bowling the 18th over. But overall it was very frustrating night being on and off with rain," said McDermott
Australia didn't get off to a great start and were reduced to 41-4 soon enough. McDermott said that it made the difference in not getting a big score as compared to the Brisbane game.
"Three down in the powerplay as opposed to one the other day made the difference. We saw at the Gabba we were 1 for 38, which isn't a massive powerplay, but we only lost one wicket, so I think that was the main talking point," he said.
"If we're building a big total then we need to get those guys (Australian top-order) batting for longer periods of time. They're some of the best batters in the world," he added.
McDermott put on a recovery partnership with Glenn Maxwell, albeit only worth 21 runs. He said contending with Kuldeep Yadav in the middle overs was tough but he is trying to get the hang of it.
"I just wanted to bat with Maxwell to start with and try to get him on strike as much as possible and I was struggling to do that early, which I wasn't that pleased with.
"Losing wickets throughout the whole innings was tough. But I was happy I could contribute and get us to when we came back out it was 90 off 11, which is actually pretty good for us," he said.
"We were picking him pretty well. I was struggling a bit early but started to pick him a bit better as my innings progressed, which is pretty normal. We just need to sharpen up on that and I think that'll come with hopefully a nicer day and wicket (in Sydney)," he added.
