After a careful 74 in Mumbai, Shikhar Dhawan was at his free-flowing best in Rajkot, and scoring runs comfortably. He took the attack on the spin duo of Adam Zampa and Ashton Agar, with the latter especially being at the receiving end.
To complete his ton with a big shot, the Delhite made a blunder, leaving Indian skipper Virat Kohli disappointed.
On the fourth ball of the 29th over, Kane Richardson bowled a short of length delivery to Dhawan – a freebie, honestly – which was there to be perfectly pulled over mid-wicket. However, the Indian opener batted with an angled bat and was cramped for room; he failed to keep the ball down.
Mitchell Starc, who was standing at deep fine leg, made no mistake in completing the catch. Richardson was shell-shocked after getting a wicket on a nothing delivery as he covered his mouth in celebration, but Kohli’s reaction grabbed the eyeballs.
The Indian talisman turned around in frustration and then smashed his pad after seeing Dhawan being dismissed just short of a hundred.
💔👏
Dhawan falls just short of a 💯. #BattleOfEquals #INDvAUS pic.twitter.com/QPCa1ASlYj
— Hotstar Canada (@hotstarcanada) January 17, 2020
Earlier, Australian skipper Aaron Finch won the toss and opted to bat first in the second ODI of the ongoing three-match series.
India made two changes in their playing XI; they included Manish Pandey and Navdeep Saini in place of Rishabh Pant and Shardul Thakur, respectively.
Australia, on the other hander, stuck with the same team, which won them the first ODI.
