Twitter Reactions: India ride on stupendous bowling performances to win by 50 runs

In what was a thrilling game at the Eden Gardens, India managed to defend a target of 253 to record their second consecutive victory against Australia. Earlier in the day, it was skipper Virat Kohli who won the toss as India elected to bat first. While India made no changes in the playing XI from the last game, Australia made two changes. James Faulkner made way for Kane Richardson while Ashton Agar replaced Adam Zampa.

India didn’t have a great start as Rohit Sharma was back to the pavilion owing to a soft dismissal. Captain Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane then combined for a splendid 102-run partnership for the second wicket. While Rahane was unfortunately run out, Kohli stayed on for a while before he was eventually dismissed for 92. MS Dhoni who has been in tremendous form lately failed to make a difference as India were reduced to 204/6. At the end, Hardik Pandya tried to steer India close to 250 but ended up getting out. However, Bumrah’s twin boundaries made sure India had 252 runs on the board.

Coulter-Nile was the pick amongst the Aussie bowlers with three wickets. Kane Richardson also got three wickets which included the crucial wickets of Dhoni and Pandya. Pat Cummins was quite economical as he had bowling figures of 1/34 in his quota of 10 overs. Ashton Agar also managed to get a wicket.

Australia who were chasing a target of 253 runs were welcomed to some solid spell of swing bowling by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah. Both seemed unplayable as Hilton Cartwright and David Warner fell prey to Bhuvneshwar leaving Australia reeling at 9/2.

That’s when skipper Steve Smith and Travis Head rescued the Aussies from a poor start. As Head got out, in came Glenn Maxwell. Like the last game, he again decided to go after Kuldeep Yadav as he smashed him for consecutive sixes. However, Chahal bowled cleverly as he got the better of Maxwell again like the last game. More action was to follow as Kuldeep Yadav took a splendid hattrick dismissing Mathew Wade, Ashton Agar and Pat Cummins.

Marcus Stoinis fought a lone battle scoring a fifty to keep tiny hopes alive for Australia. However, the visitors ran out of wickets and ended up 50 runs short of the target. Indian bowlers were stupendous with Bhuvneshwar leading the pack getting 3/9 in 6.1 overs. Kuldeep bagged a hat-trick while Hardik Pandya and Yuzvendra Chahal got a couple of wickets each.

Here are some of the amazing Twitter reactions during the course of the game.