India beat Australia by six wickets in the second one-day international (ODI) at the Adelaide Oval on Tuesday to level the three-match series at 1-1. Skipper Virat Kohli once again led from the front notching up his 39th ODI hundred while MS Dhoni hit his second consecutive fifty to guide India over the finishing line. Chasing a target of 299, the Indiagot off to a good start before Shikhar Dhawandeparted in the eighth over. That brought Kohli to the crease.
Right from the start of his innings Kohli made batting look easy as he found gaps in the field and instead of going for the big hits, scored in ones and twos. In his innings of 104 (112 balls) Kohli scored more than 50 percent of his runs in singles and doubles. As the chase got trickier towards the end, Dhoni was joined by Dinesh Kathik and together they completed the finishing act of the game. With 7 off the final over, Dhoni lofted Behrendorff for a huge six before hitting the winning runs.
Earlier, Australia won the toss and opted to bat in searing heat. The hosts were unchanged from the previous game, while India brought in debutant Mohammed Siraj in place of Khaleel Ahmed.
Shaun Marsh scored his seventh ODI century before India pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar produced a brilliant spell in the death overs to limit Australia to 298/9.
Marsh’s innings was a commanding one as he arrived at the crease at 26/2 and then went on to score 131 runs (11 fours and three sixes). His partnership with Maxwell ((48 off 37 balls) fetched 94 runs off 65 balls.
Bhuvneshwar (4-45) and Mohammed Shami (3-58) exerted themselves on proceedings with the new ball, and didn’t let the Australian openers get away quickly.
However, Siraj had a woeful day as he missed out twice on Maxwell’s wicket and then conceded 76 runs in his spell of 10 overs.
