India take 2-0 lead as Virat Kohli registers 40th ODI century

Indian bowlers delivered in a heartstopping climax to fashion a narrow eightrun victory against Australia in the second ODI after skipper Virat Kohli conjured up a resolute hundred in testing conditions yesterdayPacer Vijay Shankar scalped the last two Australian batsmen in the final over off which Australia needed 11 runs for a serieslevelling win Handing the ball to medium pacer Shankar at the makeorbreak situation was a bold decision by skipper Kohli who had the option of employing Kedar Jadhav as wellIndia spinner Kuldeep Yadav centre and MS Dhoni celebrate the dismissal of Australia captain Aaron Finch in the second ODI at Nagpur yesterday Yadav took 354Chasing 251 Australia were 240 for eight when Shankar got rid of the dangerous Marcus Stoinis 52 in the very first ball of the 50th over and then castled Adam Zampa off the third delivery to hand India its 500th ODI winJust before that pacer Jasprit Bumrah 219 who is everreliable in death overs dismissed Nathan CoulterNile and Pat Cummins within a space of three balls in the 46th over and conceded just one run in the 48th after the spinners had choked the Australians in the middle overs Stoinis kept the visitors in the hunt as he resisted the unrelenting Indian attack with aplomb and added 47runs for the sixth wicket with Alex Carey 22Earlier Kohlis 40th ODI century steered India to a competitive 250 after a middleorder collapse on a dry surface at the VCA Stadium here It proved to be just enough in the end as India earned the win with three balls to spare to lead the fivematch series 20 ahead of the third match slated for Friday in RanchiEarlier the Indian skipper was in good touch and played some delightful drives in conditions that tested the fitness of every player Kohli struck only 10 boundaries and ran a lot of singles and twos in his 116run knockHe was at the crease till the start of the 48th over facing 120 balls in an innings that will rank among one of his top ODI knocks in recent times It felt good to get to 40 ODI ton but it is just a number It feels good to win games for India When I walk in to bat when the situation gets difficult I have no choice but to put my head down and bat through the innings Kohli later saidOn his decision to throw the ball to Shankar in the final over Kohli said I was thinking of using Vijay in the 46th over but I spoke to Rohit and MS Dhoni and they said lets stick with Shami and Bumrah and if they get some wickets were on top Vijay kept it stumptostump kept it simple and it worked Its always nice to speak to Rohit MS has been around and you speak to the bowler as well Theyre all on the same pageAustralia captain Finch said Kohlis hundred made the difference If one of our top order got 80100 we would have probably won the game We got the starts but starts dont win games We got 30s and 40s they got a hundred that was the differenceCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever