Scorecard:

India vs Australia, 2nd ODI

NAGPUR: Cricket is a great leveller.Vijay Shankar was brutally trolled when he played out a maiden over bowled by Mustafizur Rahman in the Nidahas Cup final in Colombo last year. Shankar was trending again on Tuesday, but this time for all the right reasons. While Shankar has shown glimpses of his batting talent, his bowling was yet to be tested.Skipper Virat Kohli (116, 120b, 10x4) handed over the ball to him when Australia needed 11 runs in the last over. Shankar was yet to take a wicket in his previous five matches. He couldn’t have asked for a better time to pick up his first wicket. The medium-pacer trapped Marcus Stoinis (52, 65b, 4x4, 1x6) off his first ball and then cleaned up Adam Zampa to give India a fighting eight-run victory in the second One-day International on Tuesday.This, after Jasprit Bumrah (10-0-29-2) had swung the game India’s way with two important wickets of Nathan Coulter-Nile and Pat Cummins in the 46th over when Australia needed just a run-a-ball. Australian hopes were relying on Stoinis, who took the game deep and backed himself to finish the match before Shankar did the job for India. Chasing 251, Australia were bowled out for 242 in 49.3 overs to lose their fourth successive match at VCA’s Jamtha stadium.The Tamil Nadu all-rounder soaked the pressure extremely well both while batting and bowling. On a sluggish Jamtha wicket, Shankar batted fluently while giving company to Kohli. The Indian innings was all about Kohli’s 40th ODI ton. Unlike his colleagues, Kohli adapted to the conditions and constructed his innings extremely well to help India reach 250-run mark.India had lost Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan inside the first ten overs. Ambati Rayudu got his eye in but could not carry on. Shankar joined Kohli in the middle and made batting look relatively easy with some excellent stroke play. The 81-run fourth-wicket stand between Kohli and Shankar gave India much-needed momentum and boosted the run rate.The score could have been more than 250 had Shankar not been dismissed in an unfortunate manner. Kohli drove straight at Zampa. The ball touched his fingers before hitting the stumps finding Shankar just inches out of the crease. His wicket pegged back India’s progress. Zampa then struck a double blow when he sent back Kedar Jadhav and MS Dhoni off successive balls. Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja added 67 for the seventh wicket to give some respectability to India’s total. Pat Cummins broke the stand and went on to record his best away ODI figures.Australian batsmen came out with a positive intent. Skipper Aaron Finch (37, 53b, 5x4, 1x6) found some form and laid the foundation with Usman Khawaja (38, 37b, 6x4) with an 83-run opening stand. Both got out within six deliveries but Peter Handscomb (48, 59b, 4x4), Stoinis and wicketkeeper Alex Carey (22, 24b, 2x4) held firm even as experienced Shaun Marsh and Glenn Maxwell got out in quick succession. Stoinis and Handscomb batted well before Jadeja’s brilliance in the field saw the downfall of the latter.It was Kuldeep Yadav who brought India back every time Australia looked in control. Though he went for 15 in his penultimate over, Kuldeep castled Carey to break the dangerous-looking stand. Stoinis tried hard but couldn’t finish off the game. Before this game, none of his six scores of above 50 have come in a win. The trend continued on Tuesday.Use your cricket knowledge to play CricPlay, India’s first free fantasy cricket app