India thrash Australia by 36 runs, level series 1-1

India will take on Australia in the third ODI in Bengaluru on January 19. But injuries to Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma will create a puzzle for India before the series decider.

Rajkot: India thrashed Australia by 36 runs in the second ODI to level the three-match series 1-1 here at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium on Friday.

Batting first India set 341 runs target for the Aussies who lost openers David Warner and Aaron Finch early as Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja kept the visitors in check from the beginning of their innings.

As Australia captain Finch asked India to bat first, opener Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan laid the foundation of Indian innings building a solid 81-run partnership. While Rohit scored 42 Dhawan missed his 18th ODI ton by four runs. But injuries to Dhawan and Rohit will surely create a puzzle for India before the series decider.

Meanwhile, Rohit added another feather to his cap during his 42 runs knock as he became the fastest batsman to score 7,000 runs as an opener, surpassing Hashim Amla and Sachin Tendulkar.

After Rohit and Dhawan's dismissal, Virat Kohli played the anchor's role scoring a steady 76-ball 78-runs knock. KL Rahul, who came to bat at No. 5, played a blitzkrieg 52-ball 82 to help India recover from a mini collapse when they lost Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey in quick succession. As pressure started to climb up Rahul shifted the gear of his innings and decided to go after Australia bowlers. He hit three sixes and six boundaries before being run out by Alex Carey.

Mohammed Shami celebrates with Yuzvendra Chahal after scalping back to back wickets in the 44th over of Australian innings.

Though Australia lost centurions of first ODI, Warner and Finch early Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, who made his ODI batting debut on Friday, built 96 runs fourth-wicket partnership to bring Australia back in the match.

When things started tilting towards Australia city boy Jadeja gave India much needed breakthrough scalping the wicket of Labuschagne. The southpaw scored 46 off 47 balls.

From there on a rather promising duel started to fizzle out with quick dismissals of Carey and Steve Smith. In both cases, Kuldeep Yadav was the bowler. While Smith was bamboozled Carey was caught by captain Virat Kohli.

Shami added further blow to Australia as he castled Ashton Turner and Pat Cummins in the 44th over. However, he missed the hat-trick as his toe crusher missed Mitchell Starc's leg stump by an inch or two. However, his stunning spell changed things in India's favour, reducing Australia to 259/6.

Meanwhile, Navdeep Saini picked up two wickets while Jasprit Bumrah got one. For Australia, Zampa bagged three wickets while Richardson claimed two wickets.

The series decider, third ODI, will be played in Bengaluru on January 19.

Brief scores: India 340/6 (Shikhar Dhawan 96, KL Rahul 80, Adam Zampa 3-50) defeat Australia 304/10 (Steve Smith 98, Mohammed Shami 3-77) by 36 runs.