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Dominant India trounce Aus

Last Updated 21 September 2017, 19:07 IST
India overcame a somewhat poor batting effort with a dogged bowling display to take a commanding 2-0 lead over an erratic Australia as Kuldeep Yadav entered the elite club.

The young chinaman bowler, who has been making rapid strides in his nascent international career, bagged his maiden hat-trick as India defeated clueless Australians by 50 runs. The 22-year-old, who finished with figures of 3/54, became the third Indian after Chetan Sharma and Kapil Dev to bag an ODI hat-trick.

Coming on for a spell with the Australian chase in trouble at 138/5, Kuldeep left the visitors in complete tatters as he dismissed Matthew Wade, Ashton Agar and Pat Cummins in the 33rd over to receive a rousing ovation from the Eden Gardens crowd.

While Kuldeep deservedly walked away with all the applause, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3/9) first set up the victory after the Indians had seemingly settled for a below-par 252 all out. Knowing early wickets will really dent the hopes of a relatively inexperienced Australian batting side, Bhuvneshwar evicted openers Hilton Cartwright and David Warner to reduce them to 9/2.

Travis Head and Steve Smith, playing in his 100th ODI, then staged a resurrection to frustrate the Indians. Head, though, lost his head just when things appeared to be going the visitors’s way, hitting a Yuzvendra Chahal full toss straight into Manish Pandey.

Chahal, one of skipper Virat Kohli’s primary wicket-taking weapons, then engaged himself into a nice battle with Glenn Maxwell, who took Kuldeep out of the attack with two big sixes. Forcing Maxwell to take him on, Chahal had him stumped through a brilliant piece of glove work by M S Dhoni.

Things then completely hinged on Smith but the normally composed skipper committed a rare piece of blunder, hooking a Hardik Pandya delivery to substitute fielder Ravindra Jadeja. Kuldeep then came back and mopped up the lower middle-order in a flash before Marcus Stoinis (62 out out) deiced to do it all by himself. The task, however, proved way too big to accomplish.

Earlier, the Indians looked like they would pay a huge price, thanks to their callous shot-making. When Kohli won the toss on a wicket that had been under covers for the last four days, it seemed a very bold move against a quality Aussie pace attack.

But the Indians, despite losing Rohit Sharma early on, were solid as Ajinkya Rahane (55, 64b, 7x4) and Kohli (92, 107b, 8x4) looked in silken touch. The Australians continued with their strategy to bowl a full length just outside the off-stump but Rahane and Kohli countered them beautifully.

Rahane thrived on the length, stroking eye-catching cover-drives and with the outfield being quick, the ball just kept racing away to the boundary. Kohli, who is vulnerable to that length at the beginning of his innings, kept moving across and dished out handsome shots of his own. But against the run of play, just after they had raised the century partnership, Rahane ran himself out, responding late to Kohli’s call for a two.

Manish Pandey then arrived and left in a jiffy but Kedar Jadhav began to rebuild the innings along with Kohli. And just when the duo started to turn on the accelerator after a half-century stand, Jadhav gifted his wicket that led to two quick dismissals. Kohli, looking elegant all through the humid afternoon, played his first false shot of the day and paid dearly, falling in the 90s for a fifth time.

Thereafter Dhoni offered Smith a catch and India had lost three wickets for 18 runs, all between the 35-40th over phase. Indians failed to get a move-on towards the end stages too but eventually came out roaring with the ball to canter home.
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(Published 21 September 2017, 07:56 IST)

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