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Cricket Update : India cruised to a five wicket win over Australia in the 2^nd ODI at the Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy stadium, in Visakhapatnam. A brilliant century by Virat Kohli and a quick-fire innings of 71 by Suresh Raina saw the Indians through to a target of 290 in just 48.5 overs. iSporter Jigar Mehta reports.

Earlier India won the toss and chose to field and got a perfect start as Ashish Nehra got both the Australian openers out cheaply and the Australians were left reeling at 16-2 in the 8^th over of the innings.

But a brilliant innings of 111 off 139 balls from Michael Clarke got the Australians back into the match as he added 144 runs for the 3^rd wicket with Michael Hussey (69) and then a partnership of 129* for the 4^th wicket with Cameroon White (89*) to take Australia to a challenging total of 289/3 in 50 overs. Ashish Nehra was the best bowler for India with the figures of 2 for 57.

Chasing a humongous target of 290 the Indians got off to a worst possible start as they lost the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan of just the second delivery of the innings and then Murali Vijay lost his wicket in the 9^th over of the innings to leave India reeling at 35 for 2.

But a brilliant innings of 118 off 121 balls from Virat Kohli, who shared a 137 run stand for the 3^rd wicket with Yuvraj Singh(58) and then quickfire 84 run stand with Suresh Raina(71*) meant that the Indians were in close vicinity of a victory. Kolhi was batting with a runner from the 33^rd over after suffering cramps.

He was finally caught at long on by James Hopes off Hastings and soon a run after Dhoni fell and the score read 257/4 in the 44^th over. But Raina and Saurabh Tiwary saw to it that there were no more hiccups as they finished off the game in the 49^th over taking a 1-0 lead in the three match ODI series.

All in all it was a classy performance by the new look young Indian team, who demolished the Australians with great ease.

Man of the Match: Virat Kohli

Scores: Australia 289/3

India 292/5

Series: India leads the 3 match series 1-0

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