Proud moment for us as our cricket India defeated Australia by 50 runs in the second ODI on Thursday, to become the number one-ranked ODI side. Australia were bundled out for 202, with Kuldeep Yadav becoming the third Indian bowler to take an ODI hat-trick. India are now tied with South Africa at 119 points in ODI rankings, but claim the top spot on decimal points.
India produce yet another complete ODI performance to take a 2-0 lead in this five-match series. Propelled by Virat Kohli’s 92 and Ajinkya Rahane’s 55, they managed to get past the 250-run mark despite a stunning comeback by the Australian bowlers.
While the target of 253 was nothing close to formidable against the Australians, the Indian bowlers made it look like a mountain. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was lethal with the new ball, swinging and seaming the ball both ways, making life extremely troublesome for the batsmen. He bowled his first spell for 6-2-9-2 and made way for his younger colleagues to do the damage. And damage they did: Kuldeep Yadav became the third Indian to take an ODI hat-trick while Pandya and Chahal scalped two wickets each.
Steve Smith fought valiantly, scoring his 18th ODI fifty in his 100th match, before Pandya snapped him up. The only other resistance came from Marcus Stoinis, who played a gem of an unbeaten innings of 62 off 65 balls as the rest crumbled around him. With no aid at the other end, his efforts went in vain.
While the Australian bowlers showed heaps of improvement from their performance in the first ODI, the batsmen, once again, left a lot to be desired. They need to quickly figure out a way around the Indian spinners, especially, if they want to put up any fight in the series.
| O | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bhuvneshwar Kumar | 6.1 | 9 | 3 | 1.45 |
| Jasprit Bumrah | 7 | 39 | 0 | 5.57 |
| Hardik Pandya | 10 | 56 | 2 | 5.60 |
| Yuzvendra Chahal | 10 | 34 | 2 | 3.40 |
| Kuldeep Yadav | 10 | 54 | 3 | 5.40 |