Rohit Sharma made a calm 73 runs off 97 balls, with seven fours and two sixes, in the second ODI played at Adelaide. Having been dismissed on 8 runs in the first ODI played at Perth, he regained form through a steady knock. Team India wrapped up their innings for 264 for 9 in 50 overs. Australia had won the toss and opted to bowl first.
Australian bowlers took advantage of early pitch movement. Xavier Bratlett dismissed Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli in the same over. Gill scored 9 runs from 9 balls with one boundary, while Kohli was out for a duck. This marked the first time in Kohli’s career that he was dismissed for a duck in two consecutive ODIs.
Following the loss of two Indian wickets for 17 runs, Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer steadied the ship. The duo contributed 118 runs from 136 balls for the third wicket. Shreyas played 61 runs from 77 balls and smashed seven fours. The two rescued India from a bad beginning.
Axar Patel had a solid innings of 44 runs off 41 balls with five fours, missing a half-century by a whisker. But KL Rahul (11), Washington Sundar (12), and Nitish Kumar Reddy (8) could not make any notable scores. Harshit Rana chipped in with a handy 24 runs off 18 balls, taking India past the 250-run mark. Rohit Sharma was the sole batsman to have hit sixes in the innings and the first Indian batsman to have achieved 1,000 ODI runs against Australia.
Australia still had tight bowling throughout the innings. They did not allow free runs and gave only nine extras. Adam Zampa picked four wickets, Xavier Bratlett picked three wickets, and Mitchell Starc picked two wickets. Their disciplined bowling restricted India to a humble score of 264.
