After bowlers skittled out visitors for 113, Rohit Sharma, Srikar Bharat and Cheteshwar Pujara held their ground to help India register an emphatic 6-wicket victory against Australia in the second Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy here at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Sunday.
India retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by taking a 2-0 lead in the four-match series. Pujara (31*) and Bharat (23*) played till the end to guide their team home. For India, Ravindra Jadeja ripped through Australia with seven for 42. India struggled to chase down 115 at times, but the score was never particularly dangerous because of Pujara’s unbeaten 31, who carried the home team to victory.
Resuming their innings at 14/1, India skipper Rohit Sharma in red-hot form slammed Australian bowlers all around the ground as he gathered 12 runs off Nathan Lyon’s over.
However, Rohit’s blistering stint at the crease came to an end as he was run out after scoring 31 runs off 20 deliveries.
Virat Kohli then came out to bat at the crease with Cheteshwar Pujara. As Pujara kept piling singles at regular intervals, Kohli holding one end tight became the fastest batter to score 25,000 international runs.
The former India captain kept slamming boundaries to ease some pressure from the Indian team.
Nathan Lyon delivered a short ball but Virat Kohli beautifully played it toward the backward square leg fence for an excellent four in the 16th over of the innings.
Todd Murphy then provided his team with a big breakthrough as he removed a dangerous batter Kohli for 20 runs.
The right-handed batter Shreyas Iyer then came out to bat and slammed two beautiful big shots before losing his wicket to Lyon for 12 off 10. Iyer’s wicket invited right-handed batter Srikar Bharat to the crease.
Bharat shifted the gears as he kept piling runs by slamming Australian bowlers for boundaries. After 25 over, India needed just 10 runs to win. Playing his landmark 100th Test, Pujara slammed an excellent four off Murphy’s delivery to take India home with 6 wickets against Australia in the 2nd Test.
Earlier, a scintillating show by spin twins Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, including a seven-for by the latter, saw Australia being skittled out for 113 in their second innings of the ongoing second test at Delhi’s Ferozshah Kotla on Sunday, setting the hosts a target of 115 runs.
At lunch, India’s score read 14/1, with skipper Rohit Sharma (12*) and Cheteshwar Pujara (1*) at the crease.
Australia resumed their innings at 61/1, with Travis Head 39*, Marnus Labuschagne 16* seeking to build on the visitors’ lead.
Ashwin struck for the hosts early in the session, dismissing a dangerous Head for 43 off 46 balls and reducing Australia to 65/2. The duo of Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne then took the innings forward, adding 20 more runs before Ashwin sent back Smith for just 9. Australia was 85/3 in 19 overs.
Following this, Jadeja-Ashwin ripped apart the rest of the Aussie batting attack, with the ball keeping low and shooting off the surface. The Aussies were eventually bundled out for 113 runs in just 31.1 overs. Only Head and Labuschagne could reach double digits.
Jadeja got the lion’s share of Aussie wickets, finishing with his career-best figures in Test of 7/42 in 12.1 overs. Ashwin scalped 3/59 in 16 overs.
Chasing 115, India lost KL Rahul for just 1, extending his lean patch in the red-ball format. Nathan Lyon had him caught behind by wicketkeeper Alex Carey. The Indian score read 6/1 in 1.1 overs.
Rohit and Pujara then took India through to lunch without any further damage.
Brief Scores: Australia: 263 and 113 (Travis Head 43, Marnus Labuschagne 35, Ravindra Jadeja 7/42) vs India: 262 and 118/4 (Rohit Sharma 31, Cheteshwar Pujara 31*, Nathan Lyon 2/49). (ANI)
