Melbourne:
Australia have ended the year with a massive win over India to take 2-1 lead in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India endured another batting collapse as they lost seven wickets inside 21 overs in the chase of 340. The tourists were skittled for 155 in the final session of Day 5 with Australia storming to 184 runs in front of a record crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Monday.
Yashasvi Jaiswal waged a lone battle before being controversially adjudged caught-behind by the TV umpire on 84. Together with Rishabh Pant, Jaiswal kept India’s hopes of a draw alive after another poor show from their top-order.
At the tea break, India were 112/3 and draw looked imminent before Travis Head opened the doors as he lured Pant into a big shot to have him caught on 30 soon after the start of third session. That opened the floodgates.
Ravindra Jadeja (2) lasted 14 deliveries, first-innings centurion Nitish Reddy was caught at first slip by Steve Smith on 1 and the trio of Akash Deep (7), Jasprit Bumrah (0) and Mohammed Siraj (0) didn’t contribute much either.
Pat Cummins and Scott Boland took three wickets each while Nathan Lyon chipped in with a couple of wickets too.
This was after an upbeat Australia went into the lunch having reduced India to 33 for 3 with captain Rohit Sharma (9 off 40 balls), KL Rahul (0) and Virat Kohli (5) all back in the dressing room.
Jaiswal and Pant frustrated the Australian attack as they went wicketless in the second session.
The pair added 88 runs for the fourth wicket before being separated.
After his first innings dismissal invited severe criticism, Pant showed more responsibility in his approach during the 104 deliveries he was in the middle.
For Jaiswal, it really helped that he saw off the first session, leaving and defending a lot of deliveries. The second session gave him an ample opportunity to score some quick runs with the pitch offering nothing and the old Kookaburra hardly helping the bowler’s cause.
Earlier, Rohit’s ultra-defensive approach and Kohli’s unending saga of failures outside the off-stump had India staring down the barrel.
Rohit (9 off 40 balls) did all the hard work during the first hour before opposition skipper Pat Cummins (2/19 off 14 overs) got his bunny for the tenth time in Test matches.
Kohli (5 off 29) could never control his urge of playing the cover drive again and was caught at first slip after Mitchell Starc pushed one across with the angle.
Rahul was out without troubling the scorers after getting a second good ball in the game. Jaiswal, who didn’t look convincing at all, survived 83 deliveries to score 14 going into lunch.
Shortly after play began on day five, Jasprit Bumrah completed his 13th five wicket haul in Test cricket as Australia were all out for 234 in their second essay.
