Shankar, Bumrah script thrilling win after Kohli's dogged century in 2n

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 here TuesdayPacer Vijay Shankar scalped the last two Australian batsmen in the final over in which Australia needed to score 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 wellChasing 251 Australia were 240 for eight when Shankar got rid of dangerous Marcus Stoinins 52 in the very first ball of the 50th over and castled Adam Zampa in the third ball to trigger celebrations in the Indian campBefore that pacer Jasprit Bumrah 219 who is everreliable in death overs dismissed Nathan CoulterNile and Pat Cummins in space of three balls in the 46th over and conceded just one run in the 48th over playing a crucial role in Indias win after the spinners had choked the Australians in the middle oversIt was Stoinis who had kept the visitors in hunt as he resisted the unrelenting Indian attack with aplomb and added 47runs for the sixth wicket with Alex Carey 22 Kohlis 40th ODI century steered India to a competitive 250 after a middleorder collapse on a dry surface at the VCA stadium but it proved to be just enough in the end as India earned the win with just three balls to spareIndia now lead the fivematch series 20 with third match slated for Friday in Ranchi The Indian skipper was in good touch and played some delightful drives whenever the ball was pitched up In conditions which tested the fitness of each and 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 which will rank among one of his top ODI knocks in recent times Australia were off to a fluent start with openers Aaron Finch 37 and Usman Khawaja 38 adding 83 runs at a decent pace but the spinners led by Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav 354 not only put the brakes on runrate but also hurt the visitors by taking wickets intermittentlyKuldeep broke the opening stand by trapping Finch and later sent back dangerous Glenn Maxwell 4 and Carey while Jadhav and Jadeja accounted for Khawaja and Shaun Marsh respectivelyStoinis and Carey took the Aussie chase deep with their dogged batting but Kuldeep turned the tide in Indias favour by dismissing the latter After the first innings it was clear that spinners will shape the outcome of the match and Kuldeep along with Ravindra Jadeja and Kedar Jadhav did strangulate the Australian inningsBetween overs 13 and 33 the Indian bowlers conceded just one boundary Kuldeep who was the most impressive bowler on show was taken to cleaners by the two Aussies who creamed off 15 runs in the 43rd over to ease some pressure The two batsmen showed tremendous grit under pressure but Kuldeep provided the muchneeded breakthrough by castling Carey who dragged it on his stumpsEarlier Kohli steadily build the Indian innings even as he saw the fall of colleagues Shikhar Dhawan 21 and Ambati Rayudu 18 Dhawan looked in good touch as he too hit some crushing boundaries before being trapped by parttimer Maxwell Rayudu struggled to rotate strike as the ball was not coming on to the bat and was eventually adjudged leg before off LyonKohli got a good ally in Vijay Shankar 46 off 41 with whom he added 81 runs for the fourth wicket but the latter was unfortunately run out when he backed up too far at the nonstrikers end to a Kohli straight driveLegspinner Adam Zampa then got rid of Kedar Jadhav 11 and M S Dhoni 0 off successive balls but Kohli held one end up He completed his hundred by cutting one from Nathan CoulterNile to the square boundaryThe innings approaching the end acceleration was required but Ravindra Jadeja could only manage 21 off 40 balls and was soon removed by Cummins Kohli was finally dismissed while trying to pull Pat Cummins Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah too perished in a jiffy and India could not even bat for full 50 oversCatch 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