Last Update: March 19, 2023, 7:23 pm IST
Australia’s Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh after their win in the 2nd ODI vs India (AP)
Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh scored unbeaten fifties to record the third fastest ODI chase in terms of overs for Australia.
Australia defeated India by a record 10 wickets in the second ODI of the three-match series played at the Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA. Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.
Mitchell Starc wreaked havoc in the first innings as the left-arm pacer emerged as the chief architect of India’s fourth-lowest score at home, claiming his ninth five-wicket haul in ODI cricket. Then came the Australian openers, who smashed the Indian bowlers all over the park to help the visitors register their names in the history books.
India vs Australia, 2nd ODI – highlighted
A ferocious Mitchell Marsh smashed an unbeaten 66 off 36 balls, including six sixes, while Travis Head scored an unbeaten 51 to take the tourists over the finish line.
Australia registered their third fastest chase in terms of overs as they crossed the line in just 11 overs.
Head and Marsh’s partnership of 121 runs from only 66 balls, at a rate of 11, is the third highest run-rate in an ODI century opening partnership.
In fact, this is the fastest total of overs chased down in ODIs against India, the previous record being 14.4 overs when New Zealand chased down 93/2 in Hamilton, 2019.
Chasing the target of 118 runs, Siraj hit four fours in the second over. Marsh continued from where he had left off in the first ODI in Mumbai, starting by punching Shami between cover and point for a boundary, then lofting it over mid-on in the third over.
Head pulled a short ball through square leg for his second boundary of the fourth over, before he welcomed Siraj by standing long on to loft past cover. In the fifth over, Marsh continued to dominate by flicking, punching and pulling Shami for two fours and a six.
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Apart from flicking and hitting four consecutive fours in the sixth over, Head pulled Siraj twice to take it to another level. The introduction of Axar in the seventh over could not deter Marsh as he drove through the covers for four.
He then welcomed Hardik with a six down the ground, followed it up with back-to-back sixes over deep mid-wicket and brought up his half-century in just 28 balls. Head feasted on Axar’s delivery with a cut through point and hit short fine leg to get back-to-back boundaries as the opening partnership brought up their hundred in just 8.5 overs.
Marsh welcomed Kuldeep Yadav by pulling it over the second tier for a six over deep midwicket, before Head went back to pull it from the same region for a four. After being dropped by Shami running from long-on, Head brought up his half-century in 29 balls. Marsh followed up the target in 11 overs with a square drive through Axar for a boundary to complete Australia’s defeat of India.
(with inputs from agencies)
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