India on Thursday beat Australia by 50 runs in the second One Day International match in Kolkata with the sensational hat-trick by spinner Kuldeep Yadav.
Yadav became only the third Indian bowler to achieve the feat in ODI after Chetan Sharma and Kapil Dev. He dismissed Matthew Wade (2), Ashton Agar (0) and Pat Cummins (0) to bag his maiden ODI hat-trick.
Incidentally, another Indian spinner, Harbhajan Singh, too had claimed his hat-trick at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata in 2001 against the Aussies.
Harbhajan’s hat-trick had paved the way for India’s spectacular win particularly after being forced to follow on by the Stev Waugh’s team, which had won 16 Test matches in a row before coming to Kolkata.
On Thursday, batting first, the hosts posted a total of 252 in 50 overs with the skipper Virat Kohli the being the highest scorer. Kohli fell short of 8 runs to complete what would have been another fine century by the charismatic Indian captain. Ajinkya Rahane scored 55.
In response, the visitors were all out for 202 in 43.1 overs. Marcus Stoinis remained not out on 62 while Steve Smith scored 59.
