IND vs AUS, 2nd ODI: 'Men In Blue' Eye Win Against Formidable 'Aussies' At SCG To Keep Series Alive

Virat Kohli-led 'Men In Blue' would eye nothing but a win to keep the ODI series alive after being handed a massive defeat in the opening encounter at the same venue by 66 runs.

Aaron Finch and Virat Kohli (Image: ICC Twitter Handle)

Virat Kohli-led India will lock horns with Aaron Finch-hemmed Australia in the second One Day International of the 3-match ODI series at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) in Sydney, Australia in a few hours from now. The 2nd ODI between India vs Australia is scheduled for a 9:10 am (IST)start with the flip off the coin at the toss expected to be held at 8:40 am (IST). Virat Kohli-led 'Men In Blue' would need nothing but a win to keep the ODI series alive after being handed a massive run defeat in the opening encounter at the same venue by 66 runs. Meanwhile, Australia would hope to stitch together another dominant all-round performance and clinch the series by taking a 2-0 unassailable lead. India Looked Below Par In The Series Opener At SCG India looked below par in all departments in their lob sided defeat by the hosts in the series opener played on November 27th. While they put up a shoddy performance with the ball and had a on the green turf slipping some sitters , their top order batsman also looked completely out of sorts in their chase of 375. Indian bowlers once again failed to make a breakthrough in the powerplays and conceded runs one too many . With the exception of seamer Mohammad Shami, all the other bowlers were taken to the cleaners by the Australian batsmen. Spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and Jasprit Bumrah had a nightmarish outing with the ball. Pandya And Dhawan Put Up A Spirited Fight In Pursuit Of 375-Run Chase  The only silver lining in an otherwise dismal performance was a gritty partnership between opener Shikhar Dhawan and all-rounder Hardik Pandya who made an earnest effort to keep the visitors in the hunt of chasing down a mammoth target. Hard Hitting Pandya produced an exhibition of his clinical ball striking by hitting some big sixes in his 90-run knock. Australia Were Dominant With Both The Willow And Red Cherry Against India Hosts Australia ticked all the boxes with a dominant performance with both the willow and red cherry. With skipper Aaron Finch and comeback man Steve Smith getting breezy tons and opener Warner and Maxwell playing quick-fire knocks, the Aussies batters would go into the second game high on confidence with runs under their belt. Australian bowling unit also came up with the goods with their seamers making regular inroads into the Indian top order by picking up wickets consistently. Leg spinner Adam Zampa was the pick up the bowlers picking up 4 wickets in his 10-over spell. Here are the full squads for Australia and India for the ODI series Australia Squad: Aaron Finch (c), Alex Carey (wk), David Warner, Steven Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Marnus Labuschagne, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Matthew Wade, Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Andrew Tye, Cameron Green, Daniel Sams India Squad: Virat Kohli (c), KL Rahul (wk), Mayank Agarwal, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Manish Pandey, Sanju Samson, Kuldeep Yadav, Shardul Thakur, T Natarajan, Shubman Gill