Shubman Gill was unable to brighten his ODI captaincy debut as Australia secured the series with a two-wicket victory over India in the second ODI at Adelaide, with one match still to play.
On Thursday, Australia comfortably chased down India’s target of 265 runs with 22 balls and two wickets remaining. Adam Zampa was the standout performer, taking four wickets and earning the Player of the Match award.
Australia’s chase got off to a shaky start. Captain Mitchell Marsh was dismissed for 11 runs in the 8th over when the team score was 30. Travis Head could not hold on for long either; he scored 28 before being caught by Kohli off the bowling of Harshit Rana. Meanwhile, Matthew Short steadied the innings, building a 55-run partnership for the third wicket alongside Matt Renshaw. Renshaw contributed 30 runs before being bowled by Axar Patel.
Following Alex Carey’s quick dismissal, Short and Cooper Connolly added another crucial 55 runs for the fifth wicket, keeping Australia firmly on course for victory. Before his dismissal by Rana, Short had scored a solid 74 runs off 78 balls. Mitchell Owen then played an explosive cameo, smashing 36 runs from just 23 balls. Although Australia lost three wickets in quick succession towards the end, Connolly remained unbeaten on 61 runs from 53 balls to steer his team to a win.
India’s innings began disastrously after losing the toss and batting first. They lost two wickets for just 17 runs. Gill was dismissed for 9, and in the same over, Kohli fell for a duck, trapped LBW by Xavier Bartlett after facing only four balls. This marked Kohli’s first instance of back-to-back ducks in ODIs, a bitter experience for one of the game’s greats.
Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer then stabilised the innings with a 118-run partnership for the third wicket. Sharma scored 73 runs before being dismissed by Mitchell Starc, and Iyer followed shortly after, scoring 61 runs before being bowled by Adam Zampa. India’s lower order, bolstered by Axar Patel’s 44 and Rana’s 24, helped post a total of 264 for nine in their allotted 50 overs.
The two sides will meet again for the final match of the series on Saturday at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The game will begin at 9:30 AM Bangladesh Standard Time.