Australia thrashes India, leads series 1-0

Australia beat India by 84 runs in the second ODI of the seven-match series played here today.

Kochi, Oct 2 : Australia beat India by 84 runs in the second ODI of the seven-match series played here today.

Chasing a target of 307 runs set by Australia, India was all out for 222 runs with more than two overs to go.

India lost its first four wickets in quick succession and before the end of first fifteen overs, Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh and Robin Uthappa were back to pavilion scoring 7,16, 10 and 41 runs respectively.

After Hogg dismissed Dravid, Indian went for a toss with skipper M S Dhoni trying his best to salvage his team. Dhoni made 58 and was the last one to go.

From the Australian side, Hogg was the highest wicket taker. He took three crucial wickets of Dravid, Yuvraj and Dhoni.

Stuart Clark and Michael Clarke shared two wickets each, while Bret Lee was the most uneconomical bowler with his economy crossing 6 runs per over.

Earlier, India won the toss and elected to field first, which many termed as a bad decision.

Though Adam Gilchrist was dismissed in the first over by Zaheer Khan, Australia recovered from its early loss with Matthew Hayden scoring 75 runs. However, it was the partnership of Andrew Symonds and Man of the Match trophy winner, Brad Haddin, that helped Aussie to score a formidable score of 306 runs.

From Indian side, S Sreesanth picked up three wickets followed by Irfan Pathan with two wickets and Zaheer Khan with one wicket.

"Their (India's) captain said after Bangalore that it seems to have been a bit of a trend for them to let teams off a little bit. But I'm not saying it was their bad bowling. I prefer to think it was our good batsmanship," said Gilchrist after winning the match.

Australia leads the series 1-0.

ANI