Hundreds from Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer along with quickfire fifties from Suryakumar Yadav and KL Rahul guided India to a dominating 399/5 before spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja took three wickets apiece to thrash Australia by 99 runs (DLS) in a rain-curtailed match at Indore and take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three match ODI series.
Put into bat on a hot day at a traditionally high-scoring venue, India — without skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli — hit 18 sixes (their second best ODI tally) that propelled the hosts to their third highest ODI innings against Australia. Jasprit Bumrah was given a short home break by the team management, but he wasn’t needed in what was one of the most clinical performances in recent years.
What failed at Mohali after a brain freeze of a run out blossomed into a 200-run partnership for the second wicket between Gill and Iyer, coming off only 164 balls and setting up India for a mammoth score. On cue, Suryakumar hammered an unbeaten 72 off 37 balls, with Rahul — the stand-in captain — hitting 52 off 38 balls to pile the misery on Australia.
Gill, who scored 74 off 63 balls at Mohali, brought up his fifth ODI hundred this year, ending up with 104 that was laced with six fours and four sixes. It was also Gill’s second consecutive hundred at Indore, having scored 112 off 78 balls against New Zealand earlier this year. Gill was on nine off 19 balls early on but quickly accelerated with Iyer to add 50 runs off just 29 balls. Once the field was spread out, they didn’t have any problem rotating the strike and consolidating a start that saw India score 158 in the first 20 overs.
Iyer reached his third ODI hundred in the 30th over but was caught at deep midwicket in the next over. Gill departed in the 35th over but India’s run rate didn’t dip thanks to Ishan Kishan who hit the ground running with shots all around the wicket.
Suryakumar Yadav was a little slow to start with but soon began pinging the boundaries all around the wicket, throwing an already rudderless Australian bowling attack — missing Pat Cummins, Mitchell Marsh and Marcus Stoinis —entirely off gear. Rahul too was in his elements, taking Sean Abbott for 17 runs in the 47th over to reach his second fifty of the series, off only 24 balls. In all, the last 10 overs fetched India 103 runs.
The final ODI will be played in Rajkot on Wednesday.
