- Australia beat India by 10 wickets in the second ODI.
- The three-match ODI series was tied at 1-1.
Australia defeated India by 10 wickets in the second ODI played at Visakhapatnam. With this win, the Kangaroos achieved a 1-1 draw in the three-match series. Batting first, the Indian team was reduced to 117 runs in 26 overs. In response, the Australian team won the match with 234 balls remaining.
Australia captain Steve Smith won the toss and decided to bowl first. His decision proved successful. Kangaroo team's experienced bowler Mitchell Starc destroyed the top order of Team India and took maximum 5 wickets.
Half of India's team returned to the pavilion in the first 10 overs. Neither Rohit Sharma could play long innings nor Hardik Pandya. Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav also failed to open the account. The situation was such that only four out of 11 batsmen could cross the double figure. Virat Kohli scored the highest 31 runs. At the same time, Akshar Patel scored an unbeaten 29 to take the team past 100 runs.
In response, the Australian team won the match by scoring 121 runs in 11 overs. Mitchell Marsh scored 66 runs in 36 balls with the help of six fours and six sixes, while Travis Head scored 51 runs in his 30-ball innings, hitting 10 fours. Australia did not lose a single wicket in this sequence.
Rohit Sharma told the reason for the defeat
Rohit expressed his disappointment after his strong batting line-up succumbed to Australian pacer Mitchell Starc, which cost the team a 10-wicket defeat in the second ODI here. He told that Team India came on the backfoot due to the fall of wickets one after the other.
Rohit said after the match was over – “This wicket was not 117 runs, we needed to bat better, but we kept losing wickets at frequent intervals, which cost us. After losing Shubman's wicket, Virat and I added 30 to 35 runs quickly but with the fall of my wicket, we lost a few more wickets in quick succession, which put us completely on the back foot.
In his statement, Rohit further talked about Starc's bowling and Marsh's explosive batting, saying that “He (Starc) is a brilliant bowler and knows better what to do with the new ball. He consistently bowls at places from where scoring is not an easy task. This is the specialty of Stark to swing with the new ball and stop the runs with the old ball. “When it comes to power hitting, Mitchell Marsh is counted among those players who know how to do this job very well.”