Australia exerted dominance and pummeled a listless Indian bowling attack on the second morning of the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Steve Smith racked up a fine ton and scored at a quick rate. Pat Cummins first and then Mitchell Starc played second fiddle excellently.
After fighting back well in the third session, India looked out of sorts with the ball. The Indian bowling attack, barring Jasprit Bumrah were taken for plenty of runs. The body language of Rohit Sharma and co wasn’t the greatest either. They looked flat on the field as Australia scored at a rate of 5.29 in the first session.
Mohammed Siraj started proceedings and had a wayward start as he conceded nine runs in the first over of the day. Bumrah troubled Smith as he went past the Australian No. 4’s outside edge three times in a row. He even went past the edge of Cummins but the edge just didn’t come. At the other end, runs came easily as the other Indian pacers couldn’t sustain the pressure and were quite inconsistent.
Bumrah conceded only 13 runs in his five-over spell but Australia managed to get 60 runs from 14 overs in the first hour. Smith reached the three-figure mark soon after drinks. It was his 34th Test hundred and 11th against India (second in a row). Akash Deep conceded 30 runs in the five overs he bowled in the first hour.
Siraj loses the plot as Australia continue to score quickly
Siraj came into the attack but the runs continued to flow as he just couldn’t find any sort of control. He sprayed the ball around and conceded five wides a couple of times as well. Smith started to shift gears after reaching his ton and struck a flurry of boundaries against Siraj. The latter gave away 37 runs in his five-over spell as Australia continued to pile on the misery.
Nitish Kumar Reddy bowled a couple of overs but didn’t look incisive enough. Eventually, like the first day, it was once again the left-arm spin of Ravindra Jadeja which got India the first breakthrough. Cummins holed out to mid-off to give Jadeja his second wicket of the innings. The Australian captain narrowly missed out on a half-century as a superb 112-run stand was broken.
That was India’s only success on the second morning. Mitchell Starc joined Smith and the duo have already added 43 runs for the 8th wicket. The stand is yet to be broken. Smith is unbeaten on 139 and is looking in ominous touch while Starc struck one six and has got to 15 not out.
Australia have already gone past 450 and are looking set for a massive first innings score. India are looking flat at the moment. Barring that opening spell from Bumrah where he looked like taking a wicket, none of the bowlers looked like anywhere close to getting a wicket.
BRIEF SCORES: Australia 454/7 (Steve Smith 139*, Marnus Labuschagne 72, Sam Konstas 60, Jasprit Bumrah 3/97, Ravindra Jadeja 2/72) vs India.
