Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant Keeping The Scoreboard Ticking After A Major Collapse In Top Order
Yashasvi Jaiswal kept the scoreboard ticking as he moved to 50 after a collapse in the top order ahead of a big chase at MCG.
On the fifth day at the MCG, India was left feeling uneasy after being set a huge target of 340 in 92 overs. Pat Cummins struck twice in an over to dismiss Rohit Sharma, while KL Rahul and Mitchell Starc removed Virat Kohli at the stroke of lunch.
With 71 Test wickets, Jasprit Bumrah finished 2024 well on top of the bowling rankings after pegging back Nathan Lyon’s stumps just ten balls into the session to close Australia’s innings. Then, with a bit of luck, India’s openers Rohit and Yashasvi Jaiswal got off to a cautious start. They didn’t lose a wicket despite having a 30% false shot percentage in the first ten overs, same like in their first innings. Mitchell Starc consistently got the ball to form away and beat Jaiswal’s bat as he bowled 26 deliveries to the left-handed batsman in his opening spell. Jaiswal only managed to score six runs, missing eight of them and winning one.
Despite the enthusiastic cheers of the large Indian crowd for each run, Rohit was also quite cautious to begin. The Indian team was on track to finish the new ball after surviving the first hour without any rush of winning the game. However, Cummins upset everyone with a double-wicket over after the drinks break. For the first time all morning, he removed Rohit, who had been looking to demonstrate intent, for the sixth time in Test cricket. Rohit tried to flick a full ball that Cummins had angled in, but it straightened slightly and sailed off the edge to Mitchell Marsh, who made a brilliant catch at gully.
KL Rahul’s ability to play inside the line of the ball and defend as near to his body as possible has been crucial to his success and survival on this tour. However, on this particular instance, even that instinct was insufficient to prevent the outer edge of his bat from avoiding a Cummins back-of-length ball that went to Usman Khawaja at first slip.
Virat Kohli briefly continued his first-innings practice of leaving balls on the fourth and fifth stump channel as he strolled out to the cauldron to loud applause and jeers. A Cummins delivery gave him a searing hit on his right thumb, but he wrapped it up and continued. But just before noon, he chased after a delivery from Starc outside the off-stump and made his way to Khawaja at slips.
But after 33/3, Jaiswal and Pant kept the scoreboard ticking very cautiously as they starts to frustrate Australia with their defensive kind of stroke play as they crossed 75 runs partnership which leads them to cross 107/3 for 52 overs. With 233 runs more to win in 40 overs, both teams are very much in contention to win this game and retain the Border Gavaskar Trophy
Scores Till 54 Overs:- India 369 & 112/3, Yashasvi Jaiswal 63; Rishabh Pant; 28, Pat Cummins 2-10, Mitchell Starc 1-9) trail Australia 474 & 234 (Marnus Labuschagne 70; Jasprit Bumrah 5-56, Mohammed Siraj 3-70)
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