India, Oct. 23 -- He was far from his best, but Rohit Sharma grinded it out and rode his luck to make a strong statement as he held one end up for India in the second ODI against Australia at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday. The right-handed batter, 38, saw through the probing first spells of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Xavier Bartlett to eventually score 73 runs off 97 balls with the help of nine fours and two sixes to help India post 264/9 in the allotted fifty overs.

In the first two overs of the innings, Rohit ended up facing 11 balls, scoring just one run. This solid fighting effort in the middle led to Rohit earning praise from former India batter Mohammad Kaif, who minced no words as he called it the "most important innings f...