Spinner Takes A Hat-trick, Kohli Slams 92 As India Go 2-0 Up In Series
Indian wrist spinners once again came to the party to help India beat Australia by 50 runs in the second ODI at the Eden Gardens here on Thursday . It was not a perfect show by Virat Kohli's brigade and his boys as they were bowled out for 252 after electing to bat first on winning the toss. But Kuldeep Yadav (3-54) and Yuzvendra Chahal (2-34) ran through the Aussie middle-order to send them crashing for 202.
Kuldeep, became the third Indian, after Chetan Sharma and Kapil Dev, to record a ODI hat-trick when he dismissed Matthew Wade, Ashton Agar and Pat Cummins in the 33rd over of the Australian innings to virtually seal the visitors' fate. It was also the second ODI hat-trick at Eden Gardens after Kapil achieved the feat in 1991 against Sri Lanka. The 22year-old Kuldeep showed plenty of resilience to comeback and claim the wickets after being forced out of the attack by Glenn Maxwell, who hit him for two consecutive sixes in his first spell. However, it was Bhuvi, who gave India the right start by removing both the Australian openers -Hilton Cartwright and David Warner with a superb demonstration of swing bowling. Reduced to 92 inside five overs, Australia recovered through a 76-run stand for the third-wicket between Travis Head and skipper Steve Smith before the former hit a Chahal full toss straight to Manish Pandey at mid-wicket.
Smith, who looked determined to make his 100th ODI memorable, played a lone hand before mistiming an intended pull off Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja, substituting for the injured Kedar Jadhav, timed his dive to perfection at deep mid-wicket to hold a fine catch. Smith perished for a well-made 76-ball 59 that included eight hits to the boundary . After Chahal ended Maxwell's cameo by having him stumped brilliantly by Dhoni, it was Kuldeep's turn to hog the limelight. Wade was bamboozled by the wrist spinner and dragged the ball on to his stumps. Ashton Agar, playing in place of Adam Zampa, missed the drift on Kuldeep's next delivery and was caught plumb in front of the stumps, while Pat Cummins was foxed by the hat-trick ball --a googly which he edged to Dhoni to.
Earlier, Kohli led from the front and Ajinkya Rahane too got back among runs after failing in his last two innings. After losing his opening partner Rohit Sharma early , Rahane shared a 102-run partnership off 111 balls for the second wicket with his skipper to set a solid foundation for the Indian innings. Both the batsmen played some glorious cover drives, scoring almost at runa-ball, to push the Aussies on to the back foot. Rahane was unfortunately run-out after hesitatating while going for a second run and was beaten by Cartwright throw from the boundary line. Rahane's 64ball 55 included seven fours.
But the Indian innings lost the momentum when they lost Kedar Jadhav, Kohli and Dhoni for 18 runs. Just when the India skipper was looking good for his 31st ODI ton, he got an inside edge on to his stumps while trying to run an incoming delivery off Nathan Coulter-Nile down to third man.Kohli fell for 92 that came off 107 with the help of eight fours.
Pandya couldn't fire despite being caught off a no-ball and India were bowled out for 252 with the tailenders managing only 16 runs off the last 15 balls of the innings that was held up for 18 minutes by a passing shower.
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