Indore, Sep 24 (UNI) Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill’s centuries and an hurricane half-century by Suryakumar Yadav in the death overs, saw India post highest ODI total of 399/5 against Australia in the second of the three-match ODI series at Holkar Cricket Stadium here on Sunday.
It was noteworthy that India could post such a total without the services of senior pros like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya.
Having sent into bat, Ruturaj Gaikwad (8) set the tone by hammering a couple of boundaries in the first over. However, Josh Hazlewood got rid off him caught behind Alex Carey, reducing India to 16/1 in 4th over.
Iyer walked in and unleashed terror from the very beginning, looking to score runs freely along with Gill as his partner. The duo had a 200-run partnership for the second wicket as they wrecked the inexperienced Aussie attack.
There was a rain interruption for 40-odd minutes, but did not break the focus of Iyer and Gill. They frequently kept plundering runs and smashing boundaries.
In the process, Gill (104 off 97 balls with 6 boundaries and 4 sixes) and Iyer (105 off 90 balls with 11 boundaries and 3 sixes) notched up centuries, laying the platform for KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan to keep the board ticking.
Kishan (31 off 18 with 2 boundaries and 2 sixes) lost his wicket, and it was left to Suryakumar to up the ante. He did not disappoint and entertained the spectators with his 360 degree batting display. He clobbered four consecutive boundaries in an over of Cameron Green, putting Australia under the pump.
And although Rahul was dismissed after completing fifty, SKY made sure to strike regular boundaries as he took India closer to the 400-run mark with his fantastic unbeaten 72 in 37 balls.
