Kuldeep’s bag of tricks

Kolkata ï On Thursday, all that could go wrong went wrong for Australia. Virat Kohli (92) finally snapped his lean run against them, Bhuvneshwar Kumar came up with a stunning spell upfront, and the spinners dealt telling blows, with Kuldeep Yadav picking up a hat-trick. In this backdrop, there could have been no result other than a comprehensive Indian win. And so it was, a comfortable 50-run win for the hosts to go 2-0 up in the series. When India finished with just 252 runs on the board, thanks to a superb effort from the Australian pacers on an extremely humid day, the visitors appeared to be in the driver’s seat. That it wouldn’t be a walk in Eden Gardens for the Aussies became clear when Kumar began swinging the ball around considerably, and Jasprit Bumrah was as accurate as ever from the other end. It wasn’t long before Kumar got his reward – he struck twice to remove openers Hilton Cartwright and David Warner, giving India the start they needed to defend what appeared to be a below-par total. For Australia, now much depended on how skipper Steve Smith fared; and for India, the spinners’ overs were going to be the key.

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