India captain Jasprit Bumrah deservedly got his 11th five-wicket haul while debutant Harshit Rana bowled a fiery opening spell as Australia were bowled out for 104 at the stroke of lunch despite a stiff last-wicket resistance from Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood on the second day of the opening Test here on Saturday. The Indian team would be a touch disappointed that they couldn’t get a handy lead, which seemed to be on the cards once Australia were reduced to 79 for 9. But Starc (26 off 113 balls) shielded Hazlewood (7 not out off 31 balls) admirably during their 25-run last-wicket stand that lasted 18 overs and got the lead below 50 (46 runs), making it a contest of who bats better in the second innings.
The day began on a bright note as Bumrah (5/30 in 18 overs), bowling the second over of the day, got one to rear up from back of the length and Carey’s edge carried at a good height to Rishabh Pant behind stumps. Is was Bumrah’s 7th five-wicket haul in SENA nations, joint-most by an Indian bowler along with Kapil Dev.
Bumrah has also entered an elite list of Indian captains with a five wicket haul in Tests. Before Bumrah, Vinoo Mankad (1), Bishan Bedi (8), Kapil Dev (4), Anil Kumble (2) were the other Indian captains with five-wicket hauls in Tests. Kumble (5/84 at the MCG in 2007) was the last Indian captain to do so.
The skipper’s celebration was understated as he purposefully strode back to his bowling mark even before Nathan Lyon had arrived.
At the other end, Bumrah started the day with burly Harshit Rana (3/48 in 15.2 overs) carrying on from where he had left off on the opening day.
Unlike on the opening day, the rookie speedster used more short balls, and one such well-directed delivery accounted for Lyon, who was pouched at gully by KL Rahul.
With 71 runs behind India’s first-innings score of 150, one had expected the visitors to get rid of the last pair. But the short-ball tactic didn’t work well against Starc, who chuckled while reminding his former KKR teammate, “I have a long memory Harshit”.
Starc showed good defensive qualities before taking his chances now and then with some aerial hits. Harshit was replaced with Nitish Reddy for three overs but, with the ball being 40-plus overs old and the seam suppressed, there was not much incisiveness to his wicket-to-wicket bowling.
Finally, Harshit, coming for his second spell of the day, had Starc trying to slog and the skier was taken by Pant.
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