India Spin Out Australia with Kuldeep Magic at Eden

Steve Smith’s fifty and later an unbeaten 62 from Marcus Stoinis kept the Aussies in the hunt right till the end before Bhuvneshwar removed Kane Richardson to bowl Australia out for 202. In order to do that, Smith’s wards will need to improve on their death bowling which looked rather flat in Chennai conceding 83 runs in the last 10 overs.

Kuldeep Yadav’s maiden hat-trick and a fluent 92 by Virat Kohli helped India cruise to a 50-run win over Australia in the second one-day global in Kolkata on Thursday (Sep 21). “It’s another good innings from Virat”, Ganguly, who is also the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), told reporters here during the innings break. This is special for me, changed the game for us. “Really augurs well for us how the team is shaping up”, said the captain who was adjudged Man-of-the-Match for his 107-ball 92 in India’s 252 all out.

Kohli was sweating buckets and had to contend with a slow start with Smith employing smart fields to cut out any possibilities of easy singles.

Next one to face the bowler was Bhuveneshwar Kumar and did quite well for a bowler as he contributed 20 runs in 33 balls to India’s target of 237/7.

“We have spoken on how to important it is to start well against a new batsman and probably we did not do that too well in the middle period the other day”, said Zampa.

“I think I have evolved a lot as a white ball player”. That’s what he gets to the table. “You can certainly see the difference in the energy levels and the way they go about their business”, said the Australian skipper.

And Under Dhoni’s captaincy, India topped the Test cricket rankings for the first time, in 2009.

This made it a memorable evening for the two young spinners, who were playing their fourth match together in national colours. Hardik Pandiya proved himself again as he is an all-rounder.

He added “But we still believe in these guys”. Pandya having a series of a hat-trick of sixes on his kitty – four times in global cricket – as he smashed 83 from 66 balls in a match-turning 118-run partnership with MS Dhoni (79 from 88). The former Indian captain played his 300th ODI game during the recently concluded Sri Lankan series but he featured in three ODI games for Asia XI against Africa XI played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium part of the Afro-Asia Cup in 2007.

“You’re trying to evolve and just keep trying to get better”. I don’t like to differentiate at any stage.

When asked what he thought before bowling the hat-trick ball, Kuldeep said, “I asked Mahi bhai what I should bowl, he said ‘tujhe jaisa lagta hai wo daal (bowl what you want)'”. We knew if we don’t take wickets it would be hard.