Kuldeep bags hat-trick as India defend 252
Virat Kohli's 92, Bhuvneshwar Kumar's new-ball swing and Yuzvendra Chahal's middle-overs strikes were other highlights as India went 2-0 up in the ODI series
Virat Kohli's 92, Bhuvneshwar Kumar's new-ball swing and Yuzvendra Chahal's middle-overs strikes were other highlights as India went 2-0 up in the ODI series
Scorer: Binoy | Commentator: Nikhil Kalro
9.33pm India have defended 252 with ease that is not easy to find in modern-day cricket. It wasn't a bad surface to bat on, which makes this loss even harder to take for Australia. They just struggled against wristspin again, and have fallen to a 50-run loss in game 2. They'll now have to win all the three remaining ODIs to win the series. Steven Smith and Marcus Stoinis showed that you can bat well on this surface, but the rest did not do much. Kuldeep Yadav took a hat-trick and put the game beyond Australia. "The first five overs, I was struggling to bowl in a particular spot. I asked Mahi what to bowl and he told me to bowl whatever I want (the hat-trick ball)," he says.
Steven Smith: "We were pretty happy with 250 at the break. I thought we did a good job bowling. Batsmen made poor decisions under pressure. Stoinis was pretty good at the end, probably my fault and Head's fault, we both got in. It slowed up and spun more as the game went on. We need to make better decisions consistently. They've got all bases covered (India's bowlers)."
Virat Kohli, the Man of the Match: "We didn't feel like we had enough at the break. We knew if we had a good start, we had a chance. We needed breakthroughs throughout. The wicket wasn't that easy to bat, all the batsmen felt that. Bhuvi's spell was more important because they needed runs in the first 10 overs. Two young guys, bowling with a lot of heart, speaks volumes of their character. Keeps competition up with the World Cup in 2019. We have a lot of options and all bases covered. I always try to create motivation for myself, I don't like differentiate at any stage, I knew I had to stay longer because the wicket was tricky. It came off today so it looked nice, it didn't in Chennai so it didn't look nice."
KW Richardson lbw b Kumar 0 (16m 7b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00
Bhuvneshwar
A hat-trick, runs for Kohli and a raucous Kolkata crowd cheering India on to victory
Australia's captain Steven Smith has conceded that the team's batting collapses are becoming too frequent, and something needs to be done to arrest the slide
Who among these bowlers has an ODI hat-trick, and who doesn't? Take a shot at our quiz
Stats highlights from the second ODI at Eden Gardens between India and Australia
Hardik Pandya thought he was caught, the Australians thought he was definitely run-out, but it turned out that neither of those dismissals applied to the delivery