Vintage Rohit Sharma Turns On The Style With 2 Sixes In Three Balls | Watch

Rohit Sharma shunned his ultra-aggressive approach and bid his time to roar back into form as he peeled off a 59th half-century of his storied ODI career in Adelaide on Thursday. Rohit, opening the innings,

produced a hard-fought innings of 73 off 97 surviving the testing phase with the new ball to help India post a decent 264/9 in the second ODI of the ongoing three-match series against Australia.

Concerns have been raised over Rohit’s form and fitness, but the seasoned opener has answered both the questions – in the lead up to the tour, he dropped a few kilos while sweating it out in the gym and then showed adaptiveness by curbing his aggressive instincts to bring up a measured half-century in a must-win clash for India.

During his stay, the 38-year-old also turned the clock back with two sixes in three deliveries of Mitchell Owen – two pull shots to deep backward square leg region.

Thanks to Rohit’s 97-ball innings and his 118-run partnership with Shreyas Iyer (61 off 77 balls) for the third wicket, India achieved a fighting total despite the early loss of skipper Shubman Gill (9) and Virat Kohli (0). Later in the innings, Axar Patel (44 off 41 balls) emulated Ravindra Jadeja’s efforts for the Test team. His contribution, along with a 39-run stand with the resilient Washington Sundar (12), provided the bowlers something to defend.

Harshit Rana (24 not out) and Arshdeep Singh (13) added 37 runs from 29 balls for the ninth wicket, pushing the team score past the 260-run mark.

For Australia, Adam Zampa, returning after the birth of his second child, took 4 for 60, with several batsmen getting out while attacking him. Xavier Bartlett (3/39 in 10 overs), who claimed the valuable wicket of Kohli and bowled a maiden over, also made a significant impact.