Sydney, Jan 4 Seamer Scott Boland picked up another rollicking four-wicket haul and led the way for Australia’s fightback in the final session of day two’s play and left the fifth Test on a knife’s edge at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Saturday.
After India took a four-run first innings lead, they came out all guns blazing in their second innings with Yashasvi Jaiswal smashing four fours off Mitchell Starc in the opening over. But Boland led Australia’s fightback by picking up three wickets in quick succession, before getting one at the fag end of day two to end up with 4-42.
But wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant took charge with a swashbuckling 61 off just 33 balls, including hitting the fastest fifty by an overseas batter in Tests on Australian soil and the second-fastest by an Indian batter in the format. Though India have a lead of 145 after ending day two at 141/6, they have only four wickets in hand, with the game heading towards a thrilling end.
A lot will depend on how Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, unbeaten on eight and six respectively, will progress on day three. India will also be praying that captain Jasprit Bumrah, who went for scans after experiencing back spasms, to be available to bowl on a pitch which has been difficult for batting.
The final session began with Jaiswal latching on to short and wide balls from Starc with three delightful cuts and an extra cover drive. KL Rahul got going with two boundaries, before becoming Boland’s first victim of the innings when he inside-edged a drive to his stumps for 13.
Boland then got one to seam in and go past the outside edge of Jaiswal to hit the top of off-stump, and send back the opener for 22. He then bowled outside off-stump and had Virat Kohli edging to second slip, as he fell for six. More trouble came for India as Shubman Gill danced down the pitch, but gave a thin inside edge to a diving Alex Carey and becoming the first Test wicket of Beau Webster for 13.
With India in trouble at 78/4, Pant got off the mark in his usual style by dancing down the pitch and whacking Boland over long-on. After whipping Cummins for four and slapping Boland over his head for another boundary, Pant brought out his trademark falling sweep, cut, loft, slog-sweep and swipe to take four boundaries and a six off Webster.
Pant reached his fifty in 29 balls by flicking a six over mid-wicket off Starc, and hit another six over the same region on the next ball. But Pant’s blitzkrieg came to an end when Cummins forced him to swing it away from his hitting arc and edged behind to Carey.
Boland got his fourth wicket when Nitish Kumar Reddy toe-ended a lofted off drive to Cummins at mid-off. Australia could have got another scalp in the session if Usman Khawaja hadn’t dropped Jadeja on six off Webster, as another fascinating day of Test cricket came to an end.
Brief scores: India 185 and 141/6 in 32 overs (Rishabh Pant 61; Scott Boland 4-42) lead Australia 181 (Beau Webster 57, Steve Smith 33; Prasidh Krishna 3-42, Mohammed Siraj 3-51) by 145 runs.
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