India kneels before Oz

Visakhapatnam: Australian pace ace Mitchell Starc's devastating bowling (5/53) and openers Mitchell Marsh (66 not out) and Travis Head's (51 not out) smashing unbeaten 121-run opening partnership helped the visitors thrash India by 10 wickets to level the three-match ODI series 1-1 here on Sunday.

The Australians, set a lowly 118-run target to win the match, completed the job with 234 balls to spare, making it India's worst-ever defeat in the 50-over format in terms of number of deliveries. After recording their fourth-lowest total at home and overall third lowest against Australia in ODIs, Indian bowlers were in for an uphill task.

They, however, couldn't do much on a pitch assisting seam and swing bowling, where Starc and Co. had earlier looked virtually unplayable. Questions will be asked about India's preparations for the ODI World Cup, to be held in the country later this year, following the morale-shattering loss. But for now, it was all about how quickly Marsh and Head could end India's misery on Sunday. Marsh turned out to be the lead aggressor, smashing six boundaries and as many maximums off just 36 balls, while Head wasn't too far behind, scoring his 51 off just 30 deliveries with 10 boundaries to complete India's misery.

This was Australia's second 10-wicket win over India in ODIs.

A disappointed India captain Rohit Sharma rued that his side's formidable batting line-up "kept falling to the strength" of Australia pacer Mitchell Starc instead of playing their natural game in the second ODI, which the hosts lost by 10 wickets here.

"Starc is a quality bowler. He's been doing it for years for Australia with the new ball. He kept bowling to his strength and we kept falling to his strength. That's something that we need to understand and play accordingly," Sharma said at the post-match presentation.

Sharma minced no words about the batting failure, saying that 117 was not at all a challenging total.

"It is disappointing. No doubt about that. We didn't play to our potential. We didn't apply ourselves with the bat. We always knew that was not enough runs. It was not a 117 pitch at all. By no means. We just didn't apply ourselves," said Sharma, who himself contributed 13 runs from 15 balls.