Virat Kohli’s magnificent century, while chasing a challenging target of 299 runs, and Dhoni’s well-paced inning saw India square the ODI series at one all against Australia in the second ODI played at Adelaide today. The Indian captains 104 runs side-lined an equally great knock of 131 runs by Shaun Marsh for the Australians as they compiled 298 runs batting first. There wasn’t much in the pitch for the bowlers and it was up to the batsmen to commit an error and depart. The Indian debutant fast bowler Mohammed Siraj came in for some harsh treatment at the hands of the Australian batsmen. Kuldeep Yadav too went without a wicket in the ten overs that he bowled.
Shikhar Dhawan went after the bowling from the word-go while chasing the big total, but did not last long losing his wicket to Jason Behrendorff. Khawaja took a simple catch at long off to end Dhawan’s inning. Virat Kohli, the Indian captain, and Rohit Sharma then put together a partnership of 54 runs taking the Indian score past the century mark to 101 runs. Rohit Sharma fell trying to pull a short ball from Stonis only to give Peter Handscomb a simple catch at Square leg. Ambati Rayadu who replaced Sharma at the crease scored an uncomfortable 24 runs and added another 59 runs with Kohli. Rayadu also failed to clear the fence off a Glen Maxwell delivery and Stonis took a simple catch in the deep with India at the score of 160 runs for three wickets.
Earlier in the day, Aaron Finch’s poor run continued as he played a ball from Bhuvaneshwar Kumar on to his stumps for just six runs. Alex Carrey, his opening partner soon joined him in the dressing room after miscuing a pull shot off a Mohammed Shami short ball and giving Shikhar Dhawan a simple catch at square leg. Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh looked good to last but it wasn’t long before a brilliant pick up and throw by Jadeja saw Khawaja walk back to the pavilion. Khawaja and Shaun Marsh had put together 56 runs for the third wicket and had taken Australia’s score to 82 runs.
Shaun Marsh was to see two more batting partners depart while gong past in own fifty. Handscomb, who had come in at the fall of Khawaja’s wicket, was also out stumped by Dhoni when he tried to sweep a ball from Jadeja. Marcus Stonis, who played an aggressive inning, was caught by Dhoni when he tried to pull a Shami short ball. That was the third partner with whom Marsh had shared fifty runs partnership and Australia were now 189 for the loss of five wickets. That was when Maxwell joined Marsh at the wicket. While Marsh completed his seventh one day century, Maxwell survived the scare of an lbw decision by the umpire after he opted for the DRS midway through his inning.
Both Shaun Marsh and Maxwell played aggressively taking Australia past the 250 run mark. The way the two were batting it looked as if India would be chasing something in the neighbourhood of 330 runs. But Maxwell fell trying to drive a ball from Bhuvaneshwar Kumar in his last spell, mistiming it and giving Dinesh Kartik a simple catch at long off. That was the end of the 94 run stand and Shaun Marsh fell at the same score caught by Jadeja again off Kumar. The Australian inning ended soon afterwards having scored 298 runs for the loss of 9 wickets with Lyon dispatching the last ball for a huge six.
When Mahendra Singh Dhoni joined Virat Kohli in the middle, India needed 133 runs from 19.2 overs at the rate of 6.95 runs per over. Dhoni concentrated on rotating the strike while Kohli was doing most of the scoring. Virat Kohli scored his 39th ODI century and his 24th while chasing while in Dhoni’s company. Kohli was soon out to ball pitched on the leg stump by Jhye Richarson which he tried to flick over the square leg boundary. He was caught comfortably by Glen Maxwell for 104 runs. India at this stage needed another 57 runs to win off 37 balls at 8.55 runs per over. Dinesh Kartik’s aggressive 25 runs of 14 balls and a calm Dhoni hitting a six off the first ball off the last over to bring about his own fifty saw India home with four balls to spare.
With the two teams having won a match each cricket fans can look forward to an engrossing showdown in the third and final match of the series at Melbourne on the 18th of this month. At the end of this match, Shaun Marsh has certainly booked his seat on a flight to England this summer. The Indians will be happy with their performance in the field but will have to dwell on the wickets that Shikhar Dhawan and Ambati Rayadu threw away after getting their innings underway. Dhoni meanwhile finishes the two matches with the highest batting average of 106 runs for either side.
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