IND vs AUS, 2nd ODI: Twitterati Toast 'ODI Giant' Mitchell Starc, Slam India's Batting Horror Show

India found themselves at the receiving end of some fiery fast bowling by the Australian duo of Mitchell Starc and Sean Abbott to be skittled out for a paltry 117 in just 26 overs in the second ODI of the three-match series in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.

Starc broke the back of the much-vaunted Indian batting line-up, scalping the wickets of Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and KL Rahul in quick succession to leave India struggling at 48/4 in the ninth over. The left-arm quick bowled Mohammed Siraj to wrap up the Indian innings and bag a well-deserved fifer. He finished with figures of 5/53 in eight overs. This was Starc’s ninth fifer in ODIs with only Waqar Younis and Muttiah Muralitharan ahead of him.

India vs Australia Live Score 2nd ODI Updates

Starc was given good support by Abbott, who registered figures of 3/23 in six overs. Abbott’s wickets included that of Hardik Pandya, who was caught brilliantly by stand-in skipper Steve Smith at slip.

It was, therefore, a fine display with the ball and in the field that has now put Australia in the driver’s seat to push ahead for a victory and level the series.

An Australian win here would mean that there would be everything to play for in Chennai in the third and final match of the series on March 22. However, the Indian fans, who had hoped for their team to seal the series here, are not amused that the team is staring defeat in the face. They vent their anger on Twitter and some called for Sanju Samson to be given a look-in while pillorying Surya Kumar Yadav for his string of low scores.

Yadav fell to Starc two times on the trot and on the same score of zero. His mode of dismissal in Visakhapatnam was also similar to that in Mumbai. On both occasions, Yadav, who is often compared to South African maestro AB de Villiers given his ability to play shots all around the wicket, failed to judge the line and length of Starc’s deliveries and was caught plumb in front of the stumps. Yadav’s last ODI fifty came against the West Indies in Ahmedabad more than a year and 15 innings back.

Twitter users were impressed by Starc’s performance and filled him with praise. They were also reminded of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rishabh Pant, who could have saved India from a batting disaster. There was also the former cricketer and commentator Laxman Sivaramakrishnan reacting to a post by fellow commentator Harsha Bhogle and pointing out the technical flaw in the Indian batting, which saw the batsmen positioning their heads outside off-stump and not covering for the inswinging ball, as a result of which they were caught LBW. Kohli, Yadav and Rahul were dismissed LBW.

Here are some reactions on social media:

This was India’s third-lowest ODI total against Australia and the lowest total against the Aussie at home. It is India’s fourth-lowest ODI total at home.

India were hoping for a miraculous bowling effort from Mohammed Shami and Co to bail them out of this mess but in the end that did not materialise as Mitchell Marsh (66 not out off 36 balls) and Travis Head (51 not out off 30 balls) pummelled the Indian bowlers and raced to the target in just 11 overs and brought about an unusually quick end to the proceedings.

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