Kohli, Dhoni power India to series-levelling win

Adelaide: India beat Australia by six wickets in the second one-day international (ODI) at the Adelaide Oval on Tuesday to level the three-match series at 1-1.

M S Dhoni pulled off a tight finish for India just like old times to silence his critics after captain Virat Kohli laid the foundation for a series-levelling six-wicket win against Australia with his 39th ODI hundred here on Tuesday.

Man of the match Kohli was dismissed in the 44th over after making 104 off 112 balls with five fours and two sixes. Dhoni, who has been coping a lot of criticism for his waning finishing skills, turned back the clock and took India past the finish line with a final over six.

India got off to a frantic start with Shikhar Dhawan hitting five boundaries in his 28-ball 32 runs. He put on 47 runs for the opening wicket with Rohit Sharma (43).

The latter had another strong outing, adding 54 runs with Kohli for the second wicket as India crossed 100 in the 18th over. But just when things were going smoothly, he mishit a pull off Marcus Stoinis (1-46) and was caught in the deep.

Ambati Rayudu (24) then came to the crease and added 59 runs with Kohli for the third wicket. Kohli meanwhile was in cruise mode, rotating strike and picking the odd boundary with ease, as he reached fifty in 66 balls.

Dhoni then joined Kohli, and the duo put on 82 runs for the fourth wicket, with a clever rotation of strike as India crossed 200 in the 37th over to keep pace with the asking rate.

The turning point came in the 44th over though, when Australia masterminded Kohli's dismissal through some clever field placement in the deep. He holed out to Maxwell off Jhye Richardson (1-59).

Dhoni then took over and put on a match-winning partnership with Karthik.

Earlier, the Aussies rode on the batting heroics of Shaun Marsh (131) and Glenn Maxwell (48) to post 298/9 even after the Indian pace duo of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami shared seven wickets between them.