Captain special shores India hopes
SECOND ODI Virat’s partnership with Rahane props up India as CoulterNile exploits Eden’s seaming conditions
Virat Kohli missed a century at the Eden but along with Ajinkya Rahane provided India a platform that was just right for the pyrotechnics of MS Dhoni and Hardik Pandya on a steamy afternoon that had Australia perspiring literally halfway through the second One-day International here on Thursday.
But with Nathan Coulter-Nile and Kane Richardson bagging three wickets each and Pat Cummins being stingy, Australia pulled things back really well.
It put a damp squib on the projected fireworks. Rahane and Kohli ensured that a repeat of Chennai didn’t happen with a 102-run stand for the second wicket.
After Rahane was run out, Manish Pandey’s extended his lean patch by one more match. Kedar Jadhav, who hit the innings first six in the35th over, and Kolhi repaired the damage with a 49-ball stand that yielded 55.
When Jadhav cut straight to Glenn Maxwell at backward point off Coulter-Nile, Dhoni walked in to join Kohli. India were 186/4 with Kohli looking good on 85 and there being just under 15 overs to go.
By then, Eden, which was three-fourths empty when Kohli won the toss and elected to bat, had started to fill up and India were looking good for a score of over 300.
Chants of ‘Dhoni, Dhoni’ had rend the air ---- it had once earlier when ‘home boy’ Pandey fell but, as expected, Jadhav had walked out --- and with Kohli on song, the expectations were understandably great on captains present and past.
But when Kohli was eight runs short of what would have been only his second international century at Eden --- he has 47 in all but none at one of cricket’s most famous venues since the Christmas eve of 2009 --he tried to cut Coulter-Nile and maybe the ball had come back a little more than he expected.
Dhoni went soon and with Pandya running out partners, India were all out for 252 on the last ball of the innings that had an 18-minute rain break.
Pandya was hit on the grille by a shot from Bhuvneshwar Kumar but got up and resumed the innings.
It was appropriate that Eden looked its brightest when he and Rahane were batting, the sun having gone AWOL all week. Rahane took over from Rohit Sharma, who fell having played early to Coulter-Nile, and with Kohli wove a majestic tapestry of shots on the off-side.
Beginning with a superb cover-drive in the fourth over, that was Rahane’s preferred area of hitting boundaries after negotiating chin music from Cummins early.
He followed that up with a delectable piece of timing in the same Coulter-Nile over, this time to the left of the fielder at cover.
Australia bowled with discipline but the slightest of width was punished by Ranahe and Kohli. Rahane had struggled for runs with scores of five in his last two one-dayers but till he paused for the briefest of while and was run out, the Mumbaikar hadn’t put a foot wrong.
In his 100th ODI, Steve Smith welcomed Kohli with three slips, a backward point and a cover. But Kohli, whose pull in the last ball of the 11th over was India’s first boundary on the leg-side, was driving superbly, cutting delectably and occasionally making room to hit on the legside.
The boundaries had dried up between the 14th and the 19th overs, in fact there were none for 33 deliveries, but Rahane and Kohli ran hard to keep the scoreboard moving.
If it all went downhill thereafter, it was because Australia, led by Coulter-Nile in the main, choked the flow of runs by getting wickets at regular intervals. From 239/6, India were all out 13 runs later.