India vs Australia 2nd ODI: Virat Kohli scored his 40th ODI hundred and Vijay Shankar gave a brilliant display with both bat and ball to help India beat Australia by 8 runs in the second ODI played at Nagpur. India now leads the five-match ODI series by 2-0.
While India made no changes in the team, Australians made two, they brought in Shaun Marsh and Nathan Lyon.
India won the toss and chose to bat with Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma opening for India.
India had a disastrous start and lost the first three wickets very early. Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Ambati Rayudu went cheaply, scoring 0, 21 and 18 runs respectively thus putting the team under pressure.
Virat Kohli’s arrival gave impetus to Indian innings as he scored 116 runs off the 120 deliveries that he faced. His innings were studded with 10 hits to the fence. Kohli’s partnership with Vijay Shankar, who scored a quick 46 off 41, was the highlight of Indian innings.
It was Kohli’s 40th ODI century off 224 innings and he is next only to Sachin Tendulkar who has scored 49 ODI centuries in 463 matches.
It was Pat Cummins bowling that didn’t allow India put too many runs on the board. He took wickets of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja (21 off 40) and Kuldeep Yadav (3 off 3).
MS Dhoni was out for zero and Jasprit Bumrah’s dismissal by Nathan Coulter Nile brought an end to India’s innings which folded at 250 with 10 balls remaining.
Captain Aaron Finch along with Usaman Khwaja opened for Australia and they were involved in a partnership of 83 runs for the first wicket. Their dismissal in quick succession applied brakes to Aussie innings. But two decent partnerships, first between Handscomb and Stoinis and later between Stoinis and Carey brought Australia closer to victory.
When it looked as if Australia will win the match, Carey was castled by Kuldeep Yadav and then a double strike by Bumrah brought India back into the match.
It all boiled down to the last over which was bowled by part timer, Vijay Shankar, with a set batsman, Stoinis, facing him with 11 runs needed. Stoinis was out lbw to the first ball and two balls later, Adam Zampa was yorked. Australian innings folded at 242 thus giving India an 8 run victory.
