Kohli steals Bailey's thunder as India restore parity in ODI series against Australia

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When ICC introduced two new balls and a new Powerplay rule, its aim was to have a proper balance between bat and ball. At the moment though it's just not happening.

No total appears safe these days as India made a mockery of Australia's huge total (350-6) for the second time in the series, chasing down the target of 351 with six wickets intact and three balls to spare.

If it's a chase then Virat Kohli has to be the protagonist. Kohli (115, 66b, 18x4, 1x6) came out with purpose and changed the course of the game with some brilliant strokeplay to notch up his 17th one-day hundred.

Kohli did what he has done in most of the successful chases; keep his cool under pressure, pace his innings nicely and stay till the end to keep India's hopes alive of winning their first bilateral home series against Australia.

This after Shikhar Dhawan (100, 102b, 12x4) and Rohit Sharma (79, 89b, 7x4, 3x6) laid the foundation with a 178-run stand. They have had five 100-plus stands this year. No other opening pair has these many since 2011.

However, it was Kohli's innings that made all the difference in the end. Despite losing Suresh Raina and Yuvraj in the space of four balls, India hardly panicked as the 25-year-old finished the job in the company of MS Dhoni (25, 23b, 2x4) with a 61-run fifth-wicket alliance.

India, who were considered poor chasers not too long ago have now become experts at it. Hobart, Dhaka, Jaipur and Nagpur will go down as significant milestones in their ODI history. And all four featured blazing tons from Kohli.

There was a lot of similarity in India's chase between Jaipur and Nagpur. Dhawan was on 18 at Jaipur when Haddin dropped him and that proved vital in the outcome of the match.

On Wednesday, he was given a life by Glenn Maxwell when he was on 19. The left-hander made the Australians pay for it by scoring a brilliant hundred. His fluent knock provided Rohit ample time to get his eye in. Rohit missed out on a hundred, but he had done his job.

While the Australian bowlers came a cropper thanks to some brilliant batting by India, their Indian counterparts too went through a torrid time after Dhoni won the toss and put Australia into bat.

After playing on flat tracks so far in the series, India were hoping to get some turn when they arrived in Nagpur. They got plenty of it from the Jamtha wicket, but still failed to contain the Aussies.

India again struggled to stop Bailey. They continued to leak runs in the middle-overs and had no clue what to do in the death overs. Bailey (156, 114b, 13x4, 6x6) and Shane Watson (102, 94b, 13x4, 3x6) hammered the hapless Indian bowlers to all corners of the ground with their third-wicket stand of 168 runs.

There were plenty of long hops and half trackers. In between, Watson and Bailey also got enough width to essay the cut. They weren't afraid of coming down the wicket and putting doubts in the minds of the spinners. The spin trio of Ashwin, Mishra and Jadeja leaked 220 runs in 30 overs.

Bailey looked in total control again and posted his highest score. It was a typical Bailey innings which started with nudges, pushes and deft dabs. Once he settled down, he didn't take long to shift gears. He knows how to accumulate runs. With four fielders outside the circle in non-powerplay overs, he kept on picking the spots and hit boundaries at will. His fluent knock allowed Watson to settle down.

Watson, who has had a quiet series so far, nearly wasted yet another promising start when he was caught while trying to hit Jadeja over mid-wicket. However, the umpires called him back as Ravindra Jadeja had overstepped the bowling crease. Jadeja's error cost India 77 runs more as Watson showed he is relishing the new No.3 role.

Before being castled by Shami, he had completed his ninth ODI hundred. Bailey had another fruitful stand of 120 with Adam Voges (44*, 38b, 5x4), who played the anchor's role to perfection.

As good as Watson's and Bailey's efforts were, Virat's knock ensured that they were nothing but footnotes.


Virat Kohli More Stills


Keywords: ICC , mockery ,Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan , Rohit Sharma ,ODI history, Glenn Maxwell, Australian bowlers , Dhoni , Bailey,Shane Watson,Ashwin, Mishra ,Ravindra Jadeja ,Shami, Adam Voges,cricket news,sports news