IND VS AUS 2nd ODI 2020 SUMMARY

Ctrl C + Ctrl V (1st ODI), That is what happened today at Sydney. Different day same story for both the teams. Just Like the first match, Finch won the toss and elected to bat first, and all the misery started from here. Unlucky for Kohli to lose the toss twice in two matches, but we cant blame luck all the time. Australian innings started with caution again as Finch and Warner played Shami and Bumrah calmly in the first 5-6 overs. And then same story, Warner placed foot on the accelerator and blasted of the new ball ruthlessly. Finch on the other hand played a bit slow and steady but nonetheless Australia completed its 100 in 15.6 overs, with no loss of wicket. The horrors of previous game started haunting India again and their energy level fell after 20-25 overs, Warner and Finch piled up half centuries, the latter got out first, credits Shami and then Warner got run out. The score was 156-2 in 25.3 overs. After that it was a pure Smith and Labuschagne show. Smith continued his form from the previous match and played yet another brilliant innings of 104 from 64 deliveries. the way he batted against our bowlers, it looked like he was batting against a club cricket team. he scored all around the ground and middled every ball with ease. Labuschagne too batted wonderfully, scored a half century and played a supporting role to Smith. The final knockout punch was given by Maxwell who destroyed each and every bowler especially Saini and played with a strike rate of 200 in the death overs. All the top 5 batsmen of Australia scored a fifty including a ton from Steven Smith and racked up 389 runs on the board. The Indian bowling was a flop show again as no one showed penetration and consistency. The only good sign for India was that Hardik bowled after almost a year and looked good with his medium pace, he used off cutters wisely and even took the most precious wicket of Smith. The target was enormous and nearly impossible for India to chase down but our openers started on a high and registered a half century opening stand in 6.1 overs. But Mayank and Shikhar threw their wicket away soon and India was left in a huge trouble. Virat and Iyer, then batted nicely together and scored some quality runs against pacers and Zampa. they had a 50 run partnership but then Iyer got out to Henriques, courtesy a great catch from Steven Smith. In came KL Rahul who supported Kohli and they together hustled in the middle. The asking rate was always a bit out of reach and raised from 9r/o to 12r/o in a period of 7-8 overs. Virat missed his century and got out on 89 due to an excellent piece of fielding by Henriques who took a spectacular diving catch at mid on. After that Hardik and KL Rahul carried the innings forward and played some good shots in the process especially Rahul who played a quick fire knock of 76, but succumbed to the pressure in the end. Hardik and Jadeja pleased the eyes with some cracking sixes but till then the asking rate had reached till the sky and the task was humanly impossible. Cummins got rid of both of them in two successive balls taking a total of 3 wickets in the match. Zampa and Hazelwood were chief destroyers once again as they took 2-2 wickets each. India ended with a total of 338/9 in 50 overs and lost the match to Australia by 51 runs. With this, Australia has won the ODI series against a weak looking Indian team with sheer domination and they would be aiming to white wash Kohli and co. at Canberra on Wednesday.