Bumrah, Shankar's death bowling and Kohli's 116 give India their 500th ODI win
Indian bowlers delivered in a heart-stopping climax to fashion a narrow eight-run victory against Australia in the second ODI after skipper Virat Kohli conjured up a resolute hundred in testing conditions at Nagpur.
What the combination of Jasprit Bumrah and Umesh Yadav could not do in the first T20I at Visakhapatnam, the uncanny partnership of Jasprit Bumrah and Vijay Shankar did in Nagpur as India successfully defended 250, beating Australia by 8 runs in a nail biter to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match ODI series on Tuesday.
The victory in the second ODI also marked India’s 500th ODI win. And none deserves more credit than Bumrah, who miraculously repeated his famous 19th over a week ago in Vizag and in fact took it a notch higher by bowling two overs at the death which accounted for only 2 runs to once again turn the match in India’s favour. Thankfully, unlike Umesh Yadav, Vijay Shankar this time backed up Bumrah’s efforts in the last over by taking two wickets off three balls and bowl Australia out.
Australia needed 29 off 30 balls with four wickets still in the bank when Bumrah took matters in his hands. He gave a single to Stoinis in the first ball of the 46th over and then cleaned up Coulter-Nile off the next to set the cat amongst the pigeons. A couple of balls later, he found the outside edge of Pat Cummins’ bat and finished the over with two more dots.
Bumrah's W 0 W over https://t.co/oBMGKekrpL #BCCI
— Aakash Biswas (@aami_aakash) March 6, 2019
The No.1-ranked bowler returned in the 47th over to bowl five dot balls to Stoinis, who had no option but to play out the over.
Shami leaked 9 runs in the penultimate over to bring the situation to 11 off 6. Going against popular thinking, Kohli threw the ball to Shankar, who till then had bowled only one over in the match that yielded 13 runs.
The pressure of scoring a boundary early in the over was too much on Stoinis as he played all around a straight Shankar delivery to be adjudged LBW for 52 off 65 balls. Scoring 11 off 5 balls was always going to be difficult for No. 10 and 11 on any surface let alone a slow one. Zampa managed to get a couple of runs off the next ball but had his stumps uprooted in the next. India won the match by 8 runs.
It was Stoinis who had kept the visitors in hunt as he resisted the unrelenting Indian attack with aplomb and added 47-runs for the sixth wicket with Alex Carey (22).
Earlier, Kohli's 40th ODI century steered India to a competitive 250 after a middle-order collapse on a dry surface at the VCA stadium but it proved to be just enough in the end as India earned the win with just three balls to spare.
The Indian skipper was in good touch and played some delightful drives whenever the ball was pitched up. In conditions which tested the fitness of each and every player, Kohli struck only 10 boundaries and ran a lot of singles and twos in his 116-run knock.
He was at the crease till the start of the 48th over, facing 120 balls in an innings which will rank among one of his top ODI knocks in recent times.
In reply, Australia were off to a fluent start with openers Aaron Finch (37) and Usman Khawaja (38) adding 83 runs at a decent pace but the spinners led by Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav (3/54) not only put the brakes on run-rate but also hurt the visitors by taking wickets intermittently.
Kuldeep broke the opening stand by trapping Finch and later sent back dangerous Glenn Maxwell (4) and Carey while Jadhav and Jadeja accounted for Khawaja and Shaun Marsh respectively.
Stoinis and Carey took the Aussie chase deep with their dogged batting but Kuldeep turned the tide in India's favour by dismissing the latter.
After the first innings, it was clear that spinners will shape the outcome of the match and Kuldeep along with Ravindra Jadeja and Kedar Jadhav did strangulate the Australian innings.
Between overs 13 and 33 the Indian bowlers conceded just one boundary.
Kuldeep, who was the most impressive bowler on show, was taken to cleaners by the two Aussies who creamed off 15 runs in the 43rd over to ease some pressure.
The two batsmen showed tremendous grit under pressure but Kuldeep provided the much-needed breakthrough by castling Carey, who dragged it on his stumps.
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