‘Toota Delhi ka ghamand loading’ -India put up a lacklustre performance as Australia end Day 2 with 62-run lead
India and Australia battled it out on the second day after India ended Day 1 of the Delhi Test at the Arun Jaitley Stadium at 21-0. After Australia were dismissed for 263 in their innings, India did not have the best of starts as Nathan Lyon showed his craft and fell all over the Indian batting lineup. He picked up the wickets of Kl Rahul, Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara and Shreyas Iyer in short intervals.
This reduced India to 66-4 at Lunch. India then made their way to 125-4, courtesy of a partnership between Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja in the second session who did the rebuilding act for India. Then Australia came back into the game with Mathew Kuhemann, who picked up the prized wicket of Kohli albeit in a controversial fashion and Todd Murphy, who scalped Jadeja. Lyon completed a five-wicket haul when he picked up the wicket of KS Bharat.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel had a 114 run partnership for the eighth wicket
This derailed India to 139-7 and when all looked lost they found two heroes in the form of Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel, who bailed India out of a tricky situation. They added 114 runs for the eighth wicket. Ashwin scored 37 off 71 balls with five fours and Axar Patel scored 74 off 1115 balls with nine fours and three sixes.
All these contributions helped India get to 262, which was one run short of Australia’s target of 263. India will be ruing their batting performance as they batted well but also batted very badly in patches. Lyon picked 5-67 in his 29-over spell. Murphy and Kuhemann picked up 2-53 in their 18 overs spell and 2-72 in his 13-over spell, respectively for the Kangaroos.
In the second innings, Australia lost Usman Khawaja at the score 23 in what was the only bright spot for India. Travis Head batted extremely well as he scored an unbeaten 39 off 40 balls with five fours and one six.
Marnus Labuschagne made an unbeaten 16 off 19 balls with three fours. Australia ended the day at 61-1 with a 62-run lead in their kitty heading into Day 3. Let us take a look at the reactions on Twitter:
The top order batsmanship will decide the Test between India and Australia. I see KL Rahul and Pujara to not perform even in the 2nd innings. Advantage Australia. #INDvsAUS
— Sumit (main bhi taxpayer) (@neosumit) February 18, 2023
Australia have come back strong in 2nd Test & at Stumps Day 2,they are in driver's seat,unless they implode tomorrow it's going to be a tough 4th inn chase for India at this Kotla track in Delhi,test cricket 🙌#INDvsAUS #BGT2023 @StarSportsIndia
— irfan khan🇮🇳 (@ibk_irfan7) February 18, 2023
Poor with the ball in first Innings
Very poor with the bat in first Innings
Very poor with the ball in second innings this far.India is not at all playing to the potential in this 2nd Test#INDvsAUS #INDvAUS #BorderGavaskarTrophy2023
— Shankhayan Dasgupta (@shankhayan7) February 18, 2023
Travis Head batted really well in the 2nd innings. Some great shots 👌 Still cannot understand why AUS did not play him in the 1st Test Match.Should be a fantastic day of Test Cricket tomorrow #BGT2023 #INDvsAUS #WTC23 #TestCricket @collinsadam @juniorwaugh349 @Chaddsayers27
— VYBHAV ESWARAIAH (@vybhav1428) February 18, 2023
#INDvsAUS 2nd test is leaning Oz way unless our bowlers turn this around tmrw & take at least 3-4 quick wickets especially of Head Labuschagne Smith & Handscomb
Given the woeful form of our top order anything over 175-200 will be a tough chase with Lyon Murphy & co going all out
— Sameer (@BesuraTaansane) February 18, 2023
Australia are a nose ahead of India in the Delhi Test. Axar Patel & Ashwin did well to get India to level the scores in the 1st innings. But any score in excess of 150 will be difficult for India to chase in the 2nd innings. Aussies are favourites to win the 2nd Test#INDvsAUS
— Rakesh Khanna (@bobkhanna) February 18, 2023
https://twitter.com/AnanaySethi3/status/1626917839176343552?s=20
#TeamIndia exposed against spin again. No longer the best players of spin. #2ndTest #IndvsAus #BTG
— Shankar Mohan Singh (@SmoAdhikari) February 18, 2023
https://twitter.com/sri_ashutosh08/status/1626936607839522818?s=20
This is the story of The Failure of Team India's Middle order Pujara 0
KS Bharat 6, Iyer 4 < Innings Extras
19 without #axarpatel & Ashwin partnership Aussies would've Stiched up the 2nd Test long before#INDvAUS#AUSvsIND#IndvsAus#BGT2023#TestCricket pic.twitter.com/sdRNs2tWFz— MTvalluvan (@MTvalluvan) February 18, 2023
