Finance
A relentless Scott Boland proved to be India’s nemesis once more, taking up four wickets as Australia knocked India out for 185 on day one of the fifth Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday.
India’s decision to bat first on a grassy field backfired, as they were removed for a score of less than 200 for the seventh time in the ongoing series.
Apart from Boland’s 4-31, Mitchell Starc grabbed 3-49, and skipper Pat Cummins contributed two wickets as Australia’s fast bowlers claimed nine wickets in an accurate bowling performance.
On a foggy morning, India’s captain, Rohit Sharma, was replaced by Jasprit Bumrah. In the morning, Starc and Cummins got some steep bounce on the green SCG pitch, which has shown signs of being on the slower side.
KL Rahul initially showed good judgement to balls outside the off-stump, but fell for four off 14 balls after chipping a half-volley on leg-stump to square leg off Starc. Boland struck with his fourth ball in India’s eighth over when he got to nip one away and extracted an outside edge of Jaiswal’s bat, which was safely caught by debutant Beau Webster at third slip, as the opener fell for 10 off 26 balls.
The seamer almost got his second wicket on the bounce when he found Virat Kohli’s outside edge, and Steve Smith dived across to catch to his right at second slip. But it seemed like Smith had got his fingers underneath the ball and flicked the grass while scooping the ball to Marnus Labuschagne at gully, something which TV umpire Joel Wilson spotted while ruling Kohli not out.
From then, Kohli, batting with his stance protecting middle and off stumps, looked secure in defence, even though Gill got off to a good start with fours off Cummins and Starc. Just when it appeared like India might emerge unharmed from the session, Gill danced down the pitch against Nathan Lyon in the penultimate over before lunch, but he could only nick him behind the slip and fell for 20 off 64 balls.
The post-lunch session began on a negative one for India, as Boland got to seam away quickly. Kohli lunged at the delivery on the fifth-sixth stump line, giving debutant Beau Webster a catch in the slips, and fell for 17 from 69 balls.
Starc also turned up his pace and left Pant with a bruise on his bicep, as well as hitting him on the helmet, leaving the left-handed batter circumspect. Starc’s pace was too hot to handle for Jadeja as he looked to duck his rapid bouncers.
After cutting Starc past backward point for four, Pant danced down the pitch to smack Webster over the sightscreen for six, despite taking in a blow to his body again. Jadeja got his first boundary of the match by driving Lyon past non-striker for four, before being dropped by the off-spinner at five against Webster.
Pant rocked back to cut Lyon in the gap between backward point and cover point to end a slow scoring session for India. Post-tea break, Pant attempted to pull off Boland, but top edged straight to mid-on and fell for 40. One brought two as Nitish Kumar Reddy steered Boland’s wide short one straight to slip.
Jadeja sought to save the innings with two more boundaries before being caught plumb lbw by Starc for 22. Washington Sundar blasted three boundaries in 14 off 30 balls before being bounced out by Cummins, with Wilson claiming the snicko detected a small spike as the ball brushed past the glove.
Though Jasprit Bumrah hung around, hitting three fours and a six in his 17-ball 22, the highest score by an Indian captain in the ongoing series, Australia wrapped up the innings as Starc had Prasidh Krishna heaving straight to the deep fielder, while Cummins had the Indian captain holing out in the same fashion to put an end to the visitors’ poor batting performance.
Brief scores: India 185/10 in 72.2 overs (Rishabh Pant 40, Ravindra Jadeja 26; Scott Boland 4-31, Mitchell Starc 3-49) against Australia.
Source: IANS
