Left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja’s career-best bowling figures reduced Australia to just 113 for 7 in their second innings at 42, leaving India needing 115 runs to win the second Test of the four-Test series on Sunday. Got the target. India scored 14 runs for one wicket till the game was stopped for lunch. Captain Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara were batting on 12 and one run respectively at the time of lunch break. Lokesh Rahul (one run) running in bad rhythm was unlucky.
His flick shot off Nathan Lyon hit the fielder’s pad and went into the wicketkeeper’s glove. Australia started the day with a lead of 61 runs for one wicket but the team lost nine wickets in just 52 runs. Australia’s batsmen had no answer to Jadeja’s arm ball. This gave India a target of 115 runs to win. The Indian team has a chance to win this match and secure the right to retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
As per the rules, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is awarded to the team that won the previous series after the series is drawn. This fate of Australia’s batsmen was also due to Jadeja’s excellent bowling along with poor shot selection. At least five of Australia’s batsmen lost wickets to poor slog sweeps. Some batsmen have attempted the reverse sweep on deliveries bowled on the off-middle or leg-middle line and have been bowled or lbw due to lack of bounce.
Jadeja got good support from the experienced Ravichandran Ashwin (3 for 59). In front of these two spinners, only two batsmen of the team could score runs in double figures. Saturday’s unbeaten batsmen Travis Head (43) and Marnus Labuschagne (35) could only face the Indian spinners to some extent. But in the very first over of the day’s session, off-spinner Ashwin was caught by wicket-keeper Kon Bharat on the head and after that the attitude of the match changed completely.
Smith had already made up his mind to sweep against Ashwin but the ball stayed down and hit his pads. Smith took DRS (Review against on-field umpire’s decision) against the on-field umpire’s decision but it did not help him. Labushen, who has been batting brilliantly so far, got caught on Jadeja’s fast ball. He tried to play this ball by going on the backfoot but the ball came out from under the bat and hit the stump.
Australia then lost the wickets of Matt Renshaw (two), Peter Handscomb (0) and captain Pat Cummins (0) without adding any runs to the score. With this, the team’s score went from 95 runs for three wickets to 95 runs for seven wickets. Renshaw was included in the team after David Warner was injured but he lacked the technique to play spin. Alex Carey (eight runs) and Lyon (seven) then put on a 15-run partnership but Jadeja bowled both of them and Matthew Kuhnemann in the space of three runs to pave the way for India’s victory.
