Rohit's Ton of 138 helps India to score 267 Against Australia

India vs Australia odi match is currently going on and India is on good position after Rohit Sharma scored a century and made a 138 runs wonderful inning that helped India.

 

Rohit Sharma anchored the Indian innings with a scintillating 138 before Mitchell Starc’s career-best six-wicket haul helped Australia restrict the visitors to 267 for 8 in the second one-dayer of the cricket tri-series at MCG, here today.

Opening the innings, Rohit blasted nine boundaries and four sixes in 139 balls to produce his sixth ODI hundred and third against Australia after India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat.

 He put on 30 runs for the 2nd wicket with Rohit, the two scoring along at 4.64 runs per over. Just as they were beginning to look comfortable at the crease, Sandhu (1-58) got Rahane to attempt a high cut and instead was caught behind by keeper Brad Haddin. That brought Virat Kohli (9) to the crease but the star batsman was off-colour on the day. 

He miscued a pull-shot off James Faulkner (1/63) and was caught easily by skipper George Bailey at mid-on, shortly after India had crossed the 50-mark in the 11th over. 

Raina then joined Rohit at the crease and two played responsibly to dig their side out of the rot. The left-hander was dismissed in the 35th over as the opener along with his captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni brought up the 200-mark in the 40th over. 

But Starc returned to the attack to remove three Indian captain — Dhoni (19), Axar Patel (0) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (0) to restrict India’s innings. 

Debutant Gurinder Sandhu (1/58) and James Faulkner (1/63) picked up one wicket each.

The fourth wicket stand between Rohit and Raina formed the bedrock of the Indian innings as the duo stabilised the visitors after being pushed on the back foot early. 

R Ashwin (14*) who had been surprisingly held back then arrived in the middle to help add 25 runs for the 7th wicket as the 250-mark came up in the 47th over.

Ashwin was dropped by Pat Cummins (0-52) in the next over but Starc still managed to get his 5th wicket as Rohit was out caught at mid-wicket. He then bowled Kumar who missed a simple full-toss first ball.

The hat-trick was avoided by Mohammad Shami (2*) as the last ten overs yielded just 61 runs for the loss of four wickets.

(This article was published on January 18, 2015)