Australia’s dominance in the Indore Test continued on the second day of the third match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the Holkar Stadium on Friday. While Australia ended Day 1 at 156/4, they could not add much to their overnight score which might have raised hopes of an India comeback. R Ashwin and Umesh Yadav took three wickets each to bowl out Australia for 197 in the first innings.
In the second innings, India trailing by 88 runs, they did manage to put up a better performance than their first innings, but it was not an impressive performance, which helped their bowlers get enough runs to defend in the fourth innings. was necessary for Veteran off-spinner Nathan Lyon was at his best as he took 8 wickets in India’s second batting innings as the team was bowled out for 163, meaning Australia needed 76 runs to win at stumps on day two .
Cheteshwar Pujara’s innings was a rare positive for Team India on the second day as he scored 59 off 142 balls on a pitch where Shreyas Iyer’s 26 off 27 balls was the second best score by an Indian in this innings. Axar Patel remained unbeaten at the end but ran out of partners to get rid of last man Mohammed Siraj for the first time in his career with Lyon.
Despite suffering from slight cramps, the 33-year-old’s bowling figures eventually read 23.3-1-64-8. Lyon would end the match with 11 wickets in the first innings, taking 3 wickets. With the off-spinner dismissing India’s last man with 2 overs of the day remaining, stumps were called by the umpires, meaning Australia would begin the third day chasing 76.
Talking about his innings after the end of the day’s play, Pujara described it as a difficult pitch to bat on. He was hopeful of dismissing the opposition for less than 76 even, although he admitted that this might not be enough.
With 30 wickets falling in the first two days of a Test match, there is no reason why 10 more wickets cannot fall on the third day, but can they all combine to take the team past the winning score, that is the question. which would determine whether the scoreline of the series would read 2–1 or 3–0. For now, the visiting team looks to be the favorites to register their first win in the series.
