India won their second match in the ongoing ICC World Cup by beating 5-time defending champions Australia. It was an all-around performance by Team India both with the Bat and Ball, they defeated defending champions by 36 runs.
How it Happened?
Indian top order set the tone with the bat, their openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan took a steady approach by not rushing into bad shots and not throwing away wickets. In the last match, Rohit played brilliant knock and he continued with another impressive performance by scoring 57 runs from 70 balls . But this time it was his batting partner Shikhar Dhawan’s turn, Dhawan scored 117 runs from 109 balls by blasting 16 boundaries. His partnership with Rohit and Kholi (82 runs from 77 balls) set the base for hard hitter Hardik(48 runs from 27 balls) & Dhoni (27 runs from 14 balls) to take Indian total to mammoth 352/5 in 50.0 overs. Not only this is a good score against mighty Australia’s fast bowling attack, but it’s also a challenging total for the deep bated Australian batting line-up.
Australia started the world cup record chase with a steady approach, like their opponents Australia also wanted to keep wickets in hand to increase pressure on Indian bowlers in later stages. But Indian bowlers bowled with a lot of discipline, runs were hard to come by, the added pressure led to Finch’s run out. Smith and Warner started to build a nice partnership but an increase in the required run rate forced Warner to play a bad shot, which cost him his wicket. From there on Australia kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Though, Cary innings made Indian fans little worried but never threatened Indian bowlers. In the end, Australia was all out for 316 with one ball remaining and handed the Indian team their second victory in two matches.
Player of the Match : Shikhar Dhawan (INDIA)
Highlight of the Match: Kholi comes in defense of Smith when Indian fans in the stadium started booing former Aussie Captain.
What Next?
India will be playing against table toppers and 2015 runner up New Zealand on 13th June.
Australia will be playing against Pakistan on 12th June.
