Ind vs Aus, Indore Test: Hosts in trouble as Pujara fights lone battle (Day-2 Tea)

Indore (Madhya Pradesh) [India], March 2 (ANI): Team India is in a spot of bother as they have lost four wickets for 79 runs in second innings going into Tea trailing Australia by 9 runs with six wickets in hand here at the Holkar Cricket Stadium.
Resuming post-lunch session at 13/0 India lost their first wicket in the form of opener Shubman Gill as the youngster was cleaned up by Nathan Lyon for 5. Hosts lost their first wicket for 15.

Cheteshwar Pujara joined his skipper Rohit Sharma and the duo batted defensively but the other opener too became Lyon’s victim dismissing him leg before wicket for 12 to leave India in a spot of bother at 32/2. Virat Kohli then joined Pujara and the duo helped India cross the 50-run mark but the 22-run partnership did not last long as Virat Kohli was dismissed by leg before wicket by Matthew Kuhnemann for 13.
Ravindra Jadeja walked out to bat with his Saurashtra teammate Pujara and the duo batted consciously in order to reduce the deficit. But Lyon struck for the third time dismissing southpaw Jadeja leg before wicket for 7 to leave India tottering at 78/4.

India went into Tea at 79/4 trailing Australia by 9 runs and six wickets in hand with Pujara batting on 36 and Shreyas Iyer batting on 0. Earlier resuming day-2 at 156/4 Australian batters Peter Handscomb and Cameron Green batted sensibly and took their team’s first innings lead beyond 50-run mark. The Handscomb-Green parthnership was taking the game away from the hosts. They desperately needed a wicket and Ravichandran Ashwin did exactly that dismissing Handscomb caught in short leg by Shreyas Iyer for 19 breaking the 40-run partnership at 186.

Handscomb’s wicket opened the floodgates for India as they ran through Australian batting line-up. Pacer Umesh Yadav dismissed Cameron Green for 21 leg before wicket as Australia lost their sixth wicket for 188. The Nagpur lad struck again in his next over cleaning Mitchell Starc for 1. Starc became Umesh’s 100th Test victim for Umesh on Indian soil. The pacer achieved this milestone in 31 matches to leave Australia tottering at 192/7.

India struck again in the space of four balls as Ashwin dismissed Alex Carey leg before wicket for 3 to leave Australia at 196/8. Umesh Yadav looked unstoppable as he got his third wicket in the match dismissing Todd Murphy for a duck rattling his stumps to reduce Australia to 197/9. Ashwin cleaned up Australia’s innings dismissing Nathan Lyon for 5 to bowl out visitors for 197 taking 88-run lead in first innings.

India started the second innings steadily as Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill remained unbeaten on 5 and 4 respectively going into lunch with India at 13/0 trailing Australia by 75 runs. Brief Scores: India: 109/10 in 33.2 overs in 1st inns (Virat Kohli 22, Shubman Gill 21, Matthew Kuhnemann 5/16), Australia: 197/10 in 76.3 overs in 1st inns (Usman Khawaja 60, Marnus Labuschagne 31, Ravindra Jadeja 4/78, Umesh Yadav 3/12, Ravichandran Ashwin 3/44); India 79/4 (Cheteshwar Pujara 36*; Nathan Lyon 3/28).