• Kohli magic sees India overthrow Aussies

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    Shaun Marsh’s brilliant 131 for Australia against India in the second ODI at Adelaide was not enough to prevent a Virat Kohli-inspired India sneaking home in the last over for a six-wicket win, writes SIMON LEWIS.

    Shaun Marsh is the Aussie with the Midas touch in cricketing terms at the moment, and he kept up his superb white ball form with his fourth ODI century in his last eight innings.

    It was on June 16 that his golden run began, starting with another innings of 131 off 116 balls as Australia lost by 38 runs to England at Cardiff, before going on to lose the ODI series 5-0. His century in Tuesday’s six-wicket loss to India at Adelaide came off 123 balls and was an innings of power and control.

    Sandwiched between those two scores of 131 were ODI scores of 24, 101, 8, 22, 106 and 54 as his form remained true for the better part of nine months.

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    In the second ODI at Adelaide, March shared in four consecutive half-century partnerships, putting on 56 with Usman Khawaja, 52 with Peter Handscomb and 55 with Marcus Stoinis, before he added 94 off 65 balls for the sixth wicket with Glenn Maxwell to power Australia to 298-9 off their 50 overs.

    Bhuvneshwar Kumar (4-45) and Mohammed Shami (3-58) starred with the ball for India but Australia went into the break in a good position to defend their 1-0 lead in the series.

    In response, India’s top order all came to the party, Rohit Sharma (43) and Shikhar Dhawan (32) getting the innings off to a good start, after which Kohli shared half-century stands with Sharma (54 for the second wicket), Ambati Rayudu (59 for the third wicket) and MS Dhoni (82 for the fourth wicket).

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    Kohli eventually fell for a superb 104 off 112 balls (5×4, 2×6), caught by Maxwell at deep midwicket off the bowling of Jhye Richardson, playing in his sixth ODI. Kohli’s 38th ODI century has come off the back of his own incredible golden run that extends back to 22 October 2017, during which time he has racked up nine ODI tons in 19 innings, including five not outs.

    Kohli’s golden run
    (22 Oct 2017-15 Jan 2019)
    • 121 • 29 • 113 • 112 • 46 not out •
    • 160 not out • 75 • 36 • 129 not out •
    • 75 • 45 • 71 • 140 • 157 not out •
    • 107 • 16 • 33 not out • 3 • 104 •

    MS Dhoni (55 not out) and Dinesh Karthik (25 not out off 14 balls) saw India home with four balls to spare, Dhoni hitting the first ball of the 50th over for six off Jason Behrendorff to relieve the pressure on the visitors and leave his side needing just one run for victory, which he duly knocked off the next ball.

    Behrendorff, Richardson, Stoinis and Maxwell each picked up a wicket but couldn’t prevent India from leveling the series one-apiece, with Kohli picking up the Player of the Match award.

    Australia 298-9 (SE Marsh 131, GJ Maxwell 48, MP Stoinis 29, UT Khawaja 21, PSP Handscomb 20; B Kumar 4-45, Mohammed Shami 3-58)
    India 299-4 (V Kohli 104, MS Dhoni 55 not out, RG Sharma 43, S Dhawan 32, KD Karthik 25 not out, AT Rayudu 24; MP Stoinis 1-46, GJ Maxwell 1-16)
    India won by 6 wickets with 4 balls in hand

    Scorecard

    Photo: Daniel Kalisz/Getty Images

    BANGLADESH PREMIER LEAGUE

    Khulna Titans 128-9 (Ariful Haque 26; I Udana 2-36, Mehidy Hasan Miraz 2-21, Mustafizur Rahman 1-21, Arafat Sunny 2-25)
    Rajshahi Kings 103 (Mehidy Hasan Miraz 23; Junaid Khan 3-26, D Wiese 1-28, Taijul Islam 3-10, Mahmudullah 2-12)
    Titans won by 25 runs

    Sylhet Sixers 68 (Alok Kapali 33 not out; Mahedi Hasan 4-22, Wahab Riaz 3-15, LA Dawson 2-4)
    Comilla Victorians 69-2 (Shamsur Rahman 34 not out, Imrul Kayes 30 not out; Sohail Tanvir 1-10)
    Victorians won by 8 wickets with 53 balls in hand

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    Simon Lewis