Australia lost again by six wickets on the third day of their second Test match against India at New Delhi’s Arun Zeitli Stadium on Sunday. The result also extended India’s lead to 2-0 in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy with two more matches remaining.
Playing in his 100th Test match, Cheteshwar Pujara continued their unbeaten run with a score of 31 out of 74 in a three-day winning streak. Meanwhile, KS Bharat continued their unbeaten run scoring 23 points off 22 balls.
It took 115 points for the hosts to win the game, but lost first KL player Rahul early in the race and Pujara joined captain Rohit Sharma to add momentum.
Ultimately Rohit was sacked at 31 and Pujara and Virat Kohli continued to add goals. Kohli reduced India’s record to 69/3 with 20 runs conceded. With Kohli gone, Shreyas Iyer also quickly lost a wicket before adding 12 runs.
On day 3, Ravindra Jadeha also took 7 wickets to destroy Australia. Ravichandran Ashwin also took 3 wickets and the visitors resumed the night score 61/1, losing 113 in the second innings.
In the second inning, Australia was sluggish, with only Travis Head (43) and Marnus Labouchan (35) making an impact. Many pundits and former cricketers believe that the Rally Australia strategy for the Indian spinners has backfired and better planning is needed.
Former player Aakash Chopra lashed out at Australian hitters in an interview with ESPNCricinfo, noting that Indians don’t swing against spinners. “There are ways to play with rotation. When foreign teams come to India, they always plan to sweep only.
But if you look at the history of cricket in India over the past 20 years, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, V.S. Rohit Sharma and BBC Laxman, who had slightly better sweeps, never had a sweep at all and still did. Even Virat Kohli doesn’t do a sweep and keeps running. When have you ever seen Pujara sweep?” he said. or later. It happened because you keep playing big.
In English, if you take out the sweep or S, it becomes a crying sound.” Ahmedabad leads them to 9th. India are set to secure their series win with a third test victory. Meanwhile, Pat Cummins & Co. will be gearing up for a comeback in the upcoming game.
