Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni sang the praises of his fielders after their "exceptional" display helped India to end their victory drought in Australia.

After losing the four-match Test series and the opening Twenty20 International, Dhoni's men secured their first win over Australia when they convincingly beat their hosts by eight wickets in the second T20 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

In the previous games India's fielders and top order floundered, but they were the ones who stood out on Friday.

There were four run outs in Australia's innings as India dismissed them for 131 in 19.4 overs. The top four of Gautam Gambhir (56 not out), Virender Sehwag (23), Virat Kohli (31) and Dhoni (21 not out) then backed them up as they reached their target in the final over the game.

"It is always good to be on the winning side, the boys were exceptional in the field, probably the best fielding I have seen. It will be hard to beat this effort," Dhoni is quoted as saying by PTI.

"We are a side that relies a lot on a good start, not about the runs, a good, calm start is what we look for.

"Praveen (Kumar) bowled with the new ball, forcing the openers to make mistakes and the spinners did well too, they went for a few runs in between but overall it was a good effort by the bowlers and equally by the top three batsmen," he added.

After overseeing a 31-run victory in his first match as Australia's Twenty20 captain, the clash at the MCG was a bit of comeback down to earth for George Bailey.

The 29-year-old Bailey scored only three runs before he became Ravindra Jadeja's second run-out victim after the all-rounder also accounted for Aaron Finch's dismissal.

"Losing is part and parcel of the game, we were well short with the bat tonight. Four run-outs was the big difference. We were clearly out-fielded," Bailey said.

"The two run outs of Finch and myself really slowed us up."

He added: "We have a great bunch of guys, we are trying to build onto something, we have put some game plan together but the key is to be consistent."