Finance
A tremendous display of spectacular hitting from Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head, combined with Mitchell Starc’s ninth five-wicket haul, helped Australia power to a series-leveling victory over India in the second One-Day International (ODI) here on Sunday.
After Starc produced yet another stunning display of early swing bowling to scythe through the top order and then take out Mohammed Siraj to finish with 5-53 to bowl out India for 117, Marsh and Head thrashed Indian bowlers all over the park to chase down the total with 39 balls to spare.
The series is now tied at 1-1, with the series decider scheduled for Wednesday in Chennai. This was a highly disappointing outing in all departments for India, who lost four wickets in Power-play for the first time since the 2019 ODI World Cup semifinal loss to New Zealand.
Four batters were out for ducks as India slumped to their fourth-lowest home total. Marsh and Head relentlessly thrashed them with the ball, as Australia completely outplayed them in every aspect.
Head and Marsh were able to give Australia a strong start by chasing 118. While Head clipped and flayed Siraj for a pair of fours in the second over, Marsh continued from where he left off in the first ODI at Mumbai.
In the third over, he lofted over mid-on after punching Mohammed Shami between cover and point for four. He greeted Siraj by standing tall and flay past cover before Head pulled a short ball off him through square leg for the fourth over’s second four.
Marsh continued his dominance by flicking, punching and pulling Shami for two fours and a six in the fifth over. Head took it to another level in the sixth over, pulling Siraj twice and flicking and punching for four straight boundaries as Australia reached 66/0.
Axar Patel’s introduction in the seventh over couldn’t stop Marsh, who smashed a drive through cover for four. He then welcomed Hardik Pandya in the next over by slamming a six down the ground, followed by clubbing back-to-back sixes over deep mid-wicket and long-on to reach his fifty in just 28 balls.
Head ripped through point and whipped past short fine leg to get back-to-back boundaries as the opening partnership reached a century in just 8.5 overs. Marsh welcomed Kuldeep Yadav by pulling him to the second tier over deep midwicket for six before Head returned for four.
Head got his fifty in 29 balls after being dropped by Shami running in from long-on. Marsh completed Australia’s thrashing of India with 234 balls to spare, finishing the chase in 11 overs with a square drive through point off Axar for four.
Brief scores:
India 117 all out in 26 overs (Virat Kohli 31, Axar Patel 29 not out; Mitchell Starc 5-53, Sean Abbott 3-23) lost to Australia 121 for no loss in 11 overs (Mitchell Marsh 66 not out, Travis Head 51 not out) by ten wickets
Source:OCN
