Murphy strikes twice, but Rohit’s 85* reduces deficit

Nagpur: Despite debutant offspinner Todd Murphy struck twice in the session, Rohit Sharma reduced the deficit to 26 runs with a classy unbeaten 85 runs at lunch of Day 2 of first match of Border-Gavaskar Test series here on Friday.

At lunch, India were 151/3 with Viat Kohli batting on 12, giving company to Rohit at the other end.

For the second consecutive day, the first half of the pre-lunch session belonged to India. Both the overnight batsmen Rohit and Ravichandran Ashwin frustrated the Aussies.

The duo made useful runs, but were fortunate to have got a few boundaries off outside edges. Soon the partnership reached 42 runs for the second wicket, that’s when Murphy managed to strike Ashwin on the front pad.

The on field umpire judged it not out, but Australia opted for the DRS which yielded the TV umpire’s decision in their favour after the nightwatchman scored 23 runs.

Cheteshwar Pujara played an uncharacteristic knock of 7 runs. His aggressive approach brought about downfall as he ended up giving a simple catch to short fine leg while trying to sweep Murphy who bagged his third wicket.

Rohit had a foot-in-mouth moment when Murphy appealed for leg before and catch, but ended up losing the review on both counts.

As India slipped to 135/3, Kohli joined Rohit and saw to it that India does not lose any further wicket. The former captain looked in sublime touch as he hammered a couple of full-pitched balls to get India closer to Australia’s 177.

For Australia, Scott Boland and Murphy showed the way instead of usual suspects Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon. The duo bowled in tandem and dried up runs for India, building pressure which resulted in Murphy breaking the overnight partnership.

There is still a lot to do for Australia as they would like to take a couple of wickets quickly in the post-lunch session.

Brief Scores: Australia 177 all out (Marnus Labuschagne 49; R Jadeja 5/47) lead India 151/3 (Rohit Sharma 85*, Todd Murphy 3-35) by 26 runs.