Journalism of Courage
Indian bowlers delivered in a heart-stopping climax to fashion a narrow eight-run victory against Australia in the second ODI after skipper Virat Kohli conjured up a resolute hundred in testing conditions in Nagpur on Tuesday. (PTI)
Having elected to field, Australia had begun strongly with Pat Cummins, armed with the new ball, sending down a maiden-wicket over in which he dismissed Rohit Sharma for a duck. But Kohli's presence steadied the ship thereafter. (PTI)
Virat Kohli got a good ally in Vijay Shankar (46 off 41) with whom he added 81 runs for the fourth wicket but the latter was unfortunately run out when he backed up too far at the non-striker's end to a Kohli straight drive. (PTI)
Virat Kohli scored his 40th ODI ton and the Indian skipper was in good touch and played some delightful drives whenever the ball was pitched up. In conditions which tested the fitness of each and every player, Kohli struck only 10 boundaries and ran a lot of singles and twos in his 116-run knock. (PTI)
The innings approaching the end, acceleration was required but Ravindra Jadeja could only manage 21 off 40 balls and was soon removed by Cummins. Kohli was finally dismissed while trying to pull Pat Cummins. India could not even bat for full 50 overs and finished at 250 all out. (PTI)
Australia were off to a fluent start with openers Aaron Finch (37) and Usman Khawaja (38) adding 83 runs at a decent pace but the spinners led by Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav (3/54) not only put the brakes on run-rate but also hurt the visitors by taking wickets intermittently. (PTI)
As the match went down to the wire, pacer Jasprit Bumrah (2/19), who is ever-reliable in death overs, dismissed Nathan Coulter-Nile and Pat Cummins in space of three balls in the 46th over and conceded just one run in the 48th over, playing a crucial role in India's win after the spinners had choked the Australians in the middle overs. (PTI)
It was Stoinis who had kept the visitors in hunt as he resisted the unrelenting Indian attack. Australia were 240 for eight when Shankar got rid of dangerous Marcus Stoinis (52) in the very first ball of the 50th over and castled Adam Zampa in the third ball to trigger celebrations in the Indian camp. (PTI)
