While India batting first were bundled out for 250 runs, Australia were restricted by a disciplined Indian bowling attack for 242 runs.
Though it was a low scoring affair, the match was a cliffhanger right up to the penultimate over.
In the final over, Australia were required 11 runs to win the match while India needed two wickets to take a 2-0 lead in the series. All-rounder Vijay Shankar soaked up the pressure extremely well on a sluggish Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium ground and ensured India a thrilling win.
Shankar set an example by unleashing some of the best deliveries while bowling at the death to bowl out Australia for 242. The right-arm medium pacer picked up the wickets of dangerous Marcus Stoinis and Adam Zampa in a span of one ball.
Shankar was fluent with the bat in hand as well and provided much-needed support to captain Virat Kohli, who slammed his 40th ODI ton, during his 46 runs innings before falling to an acrobatic Adam Zampa’s thrower.
Earlier, Jasprit Bumrah, Kedar Jadhav, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja kept Australia batsmen in check while Mohammed Shami went a little expensive.
India became the only second national side to win 500 matches or more in ODI cricket. During their 8-run against Australia, the hosts notched their 500th ODI win. In the process, they became the only second team in the world to win 500 or more matches in the format after Australia who won 558 matches so far.
During the course of his 40th ODI hundred, Indian skipper Kohli became the sixth batsman to score 9000 runs or more across the three formats as a captain. Kohli achieved the feat in 159 innings, fastest among all captains in the list. Kohli broke former Australia captain Ricky Ponting’s record who took 204 innings to reach the mark.
Kohli now has 40 ODI centuries to his name, second in the list of batsmen with the most number of ODI ton. The Indian run-machine now require 10 more ODI centuries to surpass the tally of legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar. Out of those 40 hundred, 33 came in winning the cause.
Indian captain Kohli slammed his 7th ODI ton against Australia. He is now on the level with vice-captain Rohit Sharma. The duo is only behind Tendulkar who is the only one to hit more ODI hundred against Australia than Kohli and Sharma. Tendulkar has 9 ODI ton against Australia, most by a batsman against a country.
