Australia beat India with the help of Stark Hall and Marsh Blitz
Visakhapatnam: With the help of Mitchell Starc’s 5-53 and Mitchell Marsh’s flamboyant innings of 66 runs, Australia beat India by 10 wickets in the second one-day international on Sunday to level the series 1-1.
Left-arm seamer Starc tore apart the Indian batting line-up with his pace and swing to bundle out the opposition for 117 runs in 26 overs in Visakhapatnam.
Openers Travis Head (51) and Marsh, who hit six sixes in his blistering 36-ball knock, then tore apart the Indian bowling in 11 overs to level the three-match series with one game to spare.
Australia chased down the target with 39 overs to spare and bounced back from their opening defeat.
Starc led the team’s lethal attack with the wicket of Shubman Gill after the tourists decided to bowl first after an overnight rain.
Back-to-back strikes from Starc to dismiss skipper Rohit Sharma for 13 and then Suryakumar Yadav, who got out for a second straight first-ball duck, put India on the back foot.
KL Rahul hit a hat-trick, but it took just 11 more balls before he fell leg before wicket to Starc, who returned figures of 4-31 in his first spell of six overs.
Skipper Steve Smith took a brilliant one-handed catch at first slip to dismiss Hardik Pandya for a single off three wicket-taker Sean Abbott.
Smith went full to his right and went airborne after Pandya took the catch at one end, triggering a wave of praise on social media for his “Superman” effort.
Virat Kohli attempted to make a comeback for India with a score of 31 which included four fours, before he was trapped in front of Nathan Ellis.
Wickets kept falling and India’s woes were compounded when Ravindra Jadeja, the hero of Friday’s first match in Mumbai, scored 16 off Ellis.
Starc ended the innings with five wickets in his ninth ODI. Akshar Patel, who came in the team in place of Shardul Thakur, remained unbeaten after scoring two sixes.
Left-armer Head and Marsh fired in, smashing Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami all over the ground.
Head opened the attack with two straight boundaries off Siraj and Marsh soon joined the attack with fours and sixes.
Marsh, who scored 81 in his team’s opening defeat, hit Pandya for two straight sixes to bring up his half-century in 28 balls.
Head soon brought up his half-century and Marsh hit the winning boundary to take the series decider to Chennai on Wednesday.
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