Indore: Despite Australian spinners led by Nathan Lyon made merry on a dicey track, Cheteshwar Pujara’s impressive 36 not out helped India reduce the deficit on Day 2 of the third Test of Border-Gavaskar Trophy at Holkar Cricket Stadium here on Thursday.
At tea, India were 79/4 with Shreyas Iyer yet to open his account. Australia had scored 197 all out in reply to India’s first innings of 109 runs.
Pujara was awe-inspiring in his approach and is a spur-wheel for India to make a match out of this Test. He was supremely in control as he used his feet nimbly and also stayed deep when required to fetch crucial runs for the hosts.
The USP of his batting in the second innings has been not playing a single rash stroke and countering the spin trio with a positive mindset, despite the devil in the pitch helping them a lot. However, he did not get ample support from his partners who showed some promise in their brief stay at the crease.
It started with Lyon cleaning up Shubman Gill in the first over after the break. He then removed Rohit Sharma leg before as he tried a cross-batted smack on the leg side, with DRS option going against the Indian skipper.
Virat Kohli spent nervous times at the wicket as he had some close shaves, but he was out LBW while trying to pull a ball from Matthew Kuhnemann, just after he had slapped a short ball to cover boundary.
The wicket-falling drama continued minutes before Tea when Lyon ended Ravindra Jadeja’s dogged 36-ball stay getting him out LBW with the aid of a review.
In the morning session, Umesh Yadav and Ravichandran Ashwin combined post-drinks to plot Australia’s collapse.
The duo picked the last six Australian wickets for 11 runs, triggering Australia’s collapse from 186/4 to 197 all out.
Umesh and Ashwin ended with figures of 3/12 and 3/44, respectively with Ravindra Jadeja ending with 4/78.
Ashwin triggered the procession by getting Handscomb caught at short-leg and breaking an indomitable stand. In the next over Umesh trapped Green on the backfoot with a review going against the batsman.
Umesh then sent stumps flying off Todd Murphy (0) and Mitchell Starc (1), while Ashwin cleaned up Nathan Lyon (5) who missed a big hoick.
It did not look like India would manage to win a session in this Test, as overnight batsmen Cameron Green (21) and Peter Handscomb (19), put their foot down in the first hour of the morning session. Both stitched a vital 40 runs fifth wicket stand.
India would be slightly satisfied with their comeback in the morning session – a session which has been the barometer in determining which way the match would go in this Test series.
Indian openers, Rohit and Gill survived a dicey 15-minute period before lunch with their individual scores of 5 and 4, respectively.
Still, India were not in complete command as they trailed by 75 runs with all their 10 wickets in hands.
Brief Scores: India 109 (Virat Kohli 22; Matthew Kuhnemann 5-16, Nathan Lyon 3-35) and 79/4 (Cheteshwar Pujara 36*; Nathan Lyon 3-27) trail Australia 197 (Usman Khawaja 60, Marnus Labuschagne 31; Ravindra Jadeja 4-63, R Ashwin 3-44, Umesh Yadav 3-12) by 9 runs.
