суббота, 27 ноября 2010 г.

India v Australia

Virat Kohli struck a career-best 118 as India beat Australia by five wickets with seven balls to spare in the second one-day international at Visakhapatnam.

Kohli battled through a leg injury to guide the hosts past Australia's 289-3 and into a 1-0 lead in the three-match ODI series.

Stand-in Australia captain Michael Clarke had earlier returned to form as he hit his fifth ODI century, while Cameron White smashed an unbeaten 89 from just 49 balls, as the tourists took 114 from the final 10 overs.

But India - and in particular the 21-year-old Kohli - were always ahead of the chase, with important half-century contributions from Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh.

With both teams opting to rest most of their star names, there were two new faces in each team.

Left-handers Shikhar Dhawan and Saurabh Tiwary made their India debuts, while Australia fielded an inexperienced bowling attack after bringing in untried duo Mitchell Starc and John Hastings.

But it was the hosts' inexperience that was exposed early in India's chase, as Dhawan was bowled for a duck by Clint McKay from the second ball of the innings.

McKay then induced an edge from Murali Vijay to leave India in trouble at 35-2, before Kohli steadied the ship in impressive fashion.

The right-hander needed a runner, but he anchored the innings, first in a stand of 137 with Yuvraj Singh.

Yuvraj had added 58 before he became McKay's third victim, bowled by a slower ball, but Kohli remained unflustered as he and new man Raina picked off Australia's young attack.

The pair combined in a quickfire 84-run stand to ensure the hosts could afford a minor slip when Kohli's memorable knock ended 34 runs short of the target.

He thrashed Hastings to James Hopes at deep mid-on, before skipper MS Dhoni was bowled first ball by the young Victorian to give Australia a glimmer of hope.

But Rainathen calmly guided his side home with an unbeaten 71 from 47 balls.

Testing

Clarke had earlier returned to form by anchoring the Australia innings with a masterful 111, before White's late fireworks.

It meant the Australians set a testing target of 289-3 - a total that had looked beyond them even when Clarke and Michael Hussey (69) built a steadying 144-run stand in the middle overs.

The pair had come together with the score on 16-2, after openers Shaun Marsh and Tim Paine fell cheaply to Ashish Nehra.

They re-built the innings patiently, before Hussey fell on 69 when he was trapped in front by a quicker Ravichandran Ashwin delivery.

That looked a crucial wicket for India as batting was beginning to become easier, but in the end it only allowed White to significantly accelerate the scoring.

The Victorian smashed a couple of straight sixes off Vinay Kumar as he dominated his stand alongside Clarke.

They took 49 from their five powerplay overs, with Clarke hitting back-to-back boundaries in the last of those before turning a single to bring up his fifth ODI century.

White completed his impressive hitting with back-to-back sixes as he plundered 22 off Vinay's final over, but his heroics were to prove in vain.

The sides meet again in the the third and final ODI at Margao on Sunday. The first match in the series was washed out.


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