Adelaide: Team India put up a much better performance in the second ODI against Australia, but still fell short at the Adeliade Oval on Thursday to lose by 2 wickets.

Australia, having outplayed the men in blue in the rain-hit opening ODI at Perth, thus took an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

India were rocked early as skipper Shubman Gill (9) flopped again and Virat Kohli fell for his second consecutive duck. With the pitch aiding the quick bowlers, led admirably by Josh Hazlewood, India struggled to get the scoreboard moving.

From a poor 29/2 in 10 overs, India did well to reach 264/9 in their allotted 50 overs. Rohit Sharma (73) overcame early struggles to add 118 runs with Shreyas Iyer (61) for the third wicket. Axar Patel (44 off 41 balls) played a fine hand and Harshit Rana chipped in with a handy unbeaten 24 (18 balls) at the death.

Like India, Australia had problems in dealing with the new ball, as Arshdeep Singh and Rana dismissed dangerous duo Mitchell Marsh (11) and Travis Head (28) by the 13th over.

Matthew Short (74) steadied the innings in the middle overs, and young Cooper Connolly, playing only his seventh ODI, showed great composure to guide his side home. Coming in with Australia on 132/4, Connolly (61 not out off 53) stood firm in crucial half-century partnerships with Short and the inexperienced Mitch Owen.

More than Rohit’s fine comeback, it was Virat’s back-to-back failure – an 8-ball zero followed by today’s 4-ball zero – which dominated the chatter on social media.

“Looks like Virat Kohli has been watching the Saim Ayub coaching videos,” joked Iceland Cricket on X, referring to the Pakistani batter’s 4 ducks in 7 innings in the recent Asia Cup.

The tweet quickly went viral, as fans from India and Pakistan flooded the comments section.

Some found the humour savage but funny, while others called it unnecessary and defended Kohli as one of the greatest of all time.

Kohli, who will turn 37 on November 5, has registered 17 ducks in his illustrious ODI career – over 14,000 runs, 51 hundreds, average of 57.64. But this is the first time that he made consecutive zeroes.

As he was applauded by a section of the crowd at his favourite ground Adelaide Oval, Kohli waved to the crowd. Many interpreted that as a sign of his playing for the last time at this venue, while some went to the extent of speculating whether Kohli was contemplating retirement.

Like Rohit, Kohli has quit Tests and T20Is, and both play only the 50-over format in international cricket.