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Australia thrashed India by 10 wickets on Sunday in the second ODI of the three-match ODI series at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.
An excellent display of powerful hitting from openers – Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head along with the ninth five-wicket haul from left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc helped Australia level the three-match ODI series 1-1 after a dominating ten-wicket victory over India in the second ODI.
After a good bowling performance in the first ODI at Mumbai, Starc (5/53) continued his excellent form to produce yet another brilliant performance in a superb spell of swing bowling. He ran through India’s batting order by dismissing Gill (0), Rohit Sharma (13), Suryakumar Yadav (0), KL Rahul (9) and Mohammed Siraj (0) to help Australia bowl out India for just 117 in 26 overs. In reply, Marsh and Head hammered Indian bowlers to chase down the total with 39 overs to spare.
With this win, the series is now levelled at 1-1, with the third and final ODI to be played in Chennai on Wednesday. For India, this was a game which they will quickly want to forget as this was the first time since the 2019 ODI World Cup semifinal against New Zealand that they lost four wickets inside the powerplay. India were 51/5 at the end of the powerplay.
Just four Indian players could get into the double-figure mark as India was bundled out at 117 in 26 overs, which is their fourth-lowest total at home. Chasing a small target of 118, Marsh and Head played fearlessly and smacked the Indian bowlers all around the park to complete the chase in just 11 overs and help Australia win the game by a big margin of 10 wickets.
WHAT. A. PERFORMANCE 👊
Australia level the ODI series after a comfortable victory in Visakhapatnam! #INDvAUS | 📝 Scorecard: https://t.co/5ISBBNMhiZ pic.twitter.com/WXwrt4FXzl
— ICC (@ICC) March 19, 2023
Defending a target of 118, Indian bowlers were off to a poor start as the opening pair of Head and Marsh helped Australia to completely eliminate India from the game in the first few overs of the innings. Marsh continued from where he left in the first ODI at Mumbai, while his opening partner Head started off his innings by hitting Siraj for a couple of fours in the second over.
Marsh took on pacer Mohammed Shami by scoring back-to-back fours against him in the third over – a punch towards the cover-point region, followed by a loft over mid-on to a length ball. He then welcomed Siraj by smashing a four towards cover on the first ball of the fourth over before Head finished the over with another four by pulling a short ball towards fine leg.
Marsh was in no mood to stop as he continued to attack Shami by hitting two sixes and a four in the fifth over. Head too joined the party by smashing four consecutive boundaries off four balls from Siraj as Australia reached 66/0 at the end of 6 overs.
Skipper Rohit then introduced left-arm spinner Axar Patel into the attack in the seventh over, but the move didn’t make any change as Marsh scored another four through covers. In the next over, he took on all-rounder Hardik Pandya by hitting him a six down the ground, followed by two back-to-back maximums over deep mid-wicket and long-on to bring up his fifty off just 28 balls. Marsh garnered 18 runs off the eighth over as Australia were cruising to their first victory of the series.
Head then played a cut through point and a whip past short fine leg off Axar to get two consecutive boundaries as Marsh and Head brought up their 100-run opening stand off just 53 deliveries. Marsh then pulled left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav over deep midwicket for a six, followed by another pull but this time from Head through the same region for a four.
Head reached his fifty off 29 balls after he was given a life by Shami, who dropped his catch running in from long-on. Marsh finished it off in style by hitting a beautiful-looking square drive off Axar through point for a four as Australia thrashed India by ten wickets with 234 balls to spare.
Mitchell Starc was awarded the Player of the Match for his brilliant figures of 5/53 from eight overs with one maiden. With his ninth five-wicket haul, Starc is at No.3 on the list of players with most five-fors in Men’s ODI after Waqar Younis (13) and Muttiah Muralitharan (10).
Brief scores: Australia 121/0 in 11 overs (Mitchell Marsh 66*, Travis Head 51*) beat India 117/10 in 26 overs (Virat Kohli 31, Axar Patel 29*; Mitchell Starc 5/53, Sean Abbott 3/23) by 10 wickets.
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