Kuldeep’s Hat-trick gave India to defend 252 and 2-0 lead

In what was a thrilling game at the Eden Gardens, India managed to defend a target of 253 to record their second consecutive victory against Australia. Earlier in the day, it was skipper Virat Kohli who won the toss as India elected to bat first. While India made no changes in the playing XI from the last game, Australia made two changes. James Faulkner made way for Kane Richardson while Ashton Agar replaced Adam Zampa.

India didn’t have a great start as Rohit Sharma was back to the pavilion owing to a soft dismissal. Captain Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane then combined for a splendid 102-run partnership for the second wicket. While Rahane was unfortunately run out, Kohli stayed on for a while before he was eventually dismissed for 92. MS Dhoni who has been in tremendous form lately failed to make a difference as India were reduced to 204/6. At the end, Hardik Pandya tried to steer India close to 250 but ended up getting out. However, Bumrah’s twin boundaries made sure India had 252 runs on the board.

Coulter-Nile was the pick amongst the Aussie bowlers with three wickets. Kane Richardson also got three wickets which included the crucial wickets of Dhoni and Pandya. Pat Cummins was quite economical as he had bowling figures of 1/34 in his quota of 10 overs. Ashton Agar also managed to get a wicket.

Australia who were chasing a target of 253 runs were welcomed to some solid spell of swing bowling by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah. Both seemed unplayable as Hilton Cartwright and David Warner fell prey to Bhuvneshwar leaving Australia reeling at 9/2.

That’s when skipper Steve Smith and Travis Head rescued the Aussies from a poor start. As Head got out, in came Glenn Maxwell. Like the last game, he again decided to go after Kuldeep Yadav as he smashed him for consecutive sixes. However, Chahal bowled cleverly as he got the better of Maxwell again like the last game. More action was to follow as Kuldeep Yadav took a splendid hattrick dismissing Mathew Wade, Ashton Agar and Pat Cummins.

Marcus Stoinis fought a lone battle scoring a fifty to keep tiny hopes alive for Australia. However, the visitors ran out of wickets and ended up 50 runs short of the target. Indian bowlers were stupendous with Bhuvneshwar leading the pack getting 3/9 in 6.1 overs. Kuldeep bagged a hat-trick while Hardik Pandya and Yuzvendra Chahal got a couple of wickets each.

Stats & Records:

 

Further. this is the Third ODI hat-trick for India after Chetan Sharma's feat against New Zealand in 1987, and Kapil Dev's achievement against Sri Lanks in 1991.

1987: Chetan Sharma vs NZ

1991: Kapil Dev vs SL

2017: Kuldeep Yadav vs Aus

Hat tricks at Kolkata:

1991: Kapil Dev vs SL

2001: Harbhajan vs Aus ( Test )

2017: Kuldeep vs Aus

This was India's 8th continuous ODI victory. The current record is '9' which happened during Nov 2008 - Feb 2009.

Kohli, who lost his wicket at 92, has been desmissed for the 5th time in ODIs when his score was in 90s, while it was his 6th score in 90s including his unbeaten 96*. 

 

90s for Kohli:

91 v Ban, Mirpur, 2010

94 v WI, Kngston, 2011

99 v WI,Vizag, 2013

91 v Aus, Perth, 2016

96* v Ban, Birmingham, 2017

92 v Aus, Kolkata, 2017

Most ODI nineties for India:

18 - Sachin

07 - Azhar

06 - Sehwag

06 - Dhoni

06 - Ganguly

06 – Kohli

Skipper Kohli scored his 11^th the joint most numbers of 50 plus score in the current calendar year 2017.

Kohli scored fourth 50+ score in his last six innings at the Eden Gardens.

Most 50+ scores in a Calendar year by Indian Captain:

11 - Azhar in 1998

11 - Dhoni in 2009

11 - Kohli in 2017*

Bumrah scored his first boundary after 48 International games.

Ravindra Jadeja not yet played in this series already took two catches as substitute.

Steve Smith, playing his 100th ODI, is now the 27th Australian to reach triple figures in the format.

Steve Smith is the fifth Australian to get a fifty on his 100th ODI. The other four are Geoff Marsh, Ricky Ponting, Michael Hussey and Shane Watson. 

20th Sep 1982: ODI Cricket saw first ever hat trick...

21st Sep 2017: ODI Cricket saw latest hat trick...

In process of the innings, Kohli went on to become only the third Indian batsman to score 10,000 runs across formats in India’s victories. The two Indian batsmen ahead of him in the list are the legendary Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.

Sachin Tendulkar – 17113

Rahul Dravid – 10860

Virat Kohli – 10059*

It’s the first time India have been bowled out batting first in an ODI since June 2015.