India vs Australia 2019, 2nd ODI: The turning point of the match

In the second ODI of the series at Nagpur, Virat Kohli played another surreal knock. Scoring 40 hundreds in 224 innings is a great feat. Words can't be used to describe this record. Unfortunately, India committed the cardinal sin of not playing out their 50 overs. They missed out on playing 10 balls. In a match, where the pitch is on the slower side, 10 balls can amount to their weight in gold. It certainly was a missed opportunity to add to their total of 250.

Australia started off their chase very well adding 83 runs for the first wicket. India surprisingly were a bit ragged at the start. Peter Handscomb and Marcus Stoinis were going along very well until the former decided to challenge the arm of Jadeja while attempting a quick single. You never take on Ravindra Jadeja at point for a quick single. Handscomb learned this the hard way as he fell short of his crease by a big margin and having to take the long walk back to the dressing room.

Kuldeep Yadav was handed the ball in the 43rd over. One of the good bowlers today, was taken to the cleaners with 15 runs coming off that over. Though he did manage to take the important wicket of Alex Carey in his next over, the damage might have already been done.

It is here where Kohli had to take a call, whether to save Jasprit Bumrah, arguably the best death overs bowler, for the end or bring him to the attack immediately. If Kohli had waited till the end, by the time Bumrah had come on, the match could have gotten over.

The risk of bringing him on immediately was that the last 2 overs could leak runs. Kohli chose the first option and he was right in doing that. Bumrah picked up the wickets of Nathan Coulter-Nile and Pat Cummins and was very tight in both his overs. Stoinis just played out Bumrah and targetted to hit 20 runs off the last 2 overs.

Bumrah bowled the over that changed the match

Mohammad Shami would surely bowl one of these overs, but the concern for India would be, who would bowl the final over. Would it be Kedar Jadhav or Vijay Shankar? Shami bowled a great over till the last ball and gave away 9 runs in the penultimate over of the innings. Australia needed 11 off the final over and Stoinis was seeming to be playing a Dhoniesque innings.

The last over was given to Shankar. It was a questionable choice, as he had bowled only one over till then whereas Jadhav had bowled eight overs with Stoinis struggling against him. With his very first ball, Shankar got Stoinis out LBW. As the ball hit the pads, the appeal was instant and the umpire raised his finger immediately. The decision was reviewed, and it was umpire's call and the on-field decision was retained. The dangerous Stoinis was dismissed. Two balls later, Shankar cleaned up Zampa, handing India a great win.

However, the turning point was bowling Bumrah for the 46th and 48th over instead of saving him for the end. Not only did he take two wickets but also was very economical, forcing Stoinis to drag the game on.