India have gained total control of the opening test against Australia on Saturday (November 23) in Perth. After the completion of the second session, the visitors are at 84/0, and have amassed a lead of 130 runs.
The first session of the day witnessed Jasprit Bumrah completing his fifer by taking the wicket of Alex Carey (21). However, Mitchell Starc (26) with other tailenders frustrated the Indian bowling unit. But, India managed to bundled out Australia for 104 and secure a 46-run first innings lead. Apart from Bumrah’s brilliance, debutant Harshit Rana impressed with three scalps, while Mohammed Siraj bagged two wickets.
Certainly, the Australian team had to strike early to bring back Australia into the game. With pace and bounce on offer, much was expected from the trio of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood. However, they could not do much against the Indian opening pair of Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul.
Rahul, Jaiswal puts India in driving seat against Australia
Starting their innings, KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal were careful to see off the initial overs of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood. The pace bowling duo missed the trick by not bowling enough fuller balls, to force the batters to play shots against them.
As a result, Rahul and Jaiswal got comfortable at the crease and started to attack back-of-length balls, scoring consistent boundaries. Rahul was supreme to accumulate fours towards the covers, straight boundaries and also pulling the shorter balls to dominate the Australian attack.
Meanwhile, Jaiswal was impactful to stun Mitchell Starc with his outrageous shot towards the square-leg boundary. Then, he sent Pat Cummins’ short ball to the third man region with his crisp upper cut. The southpaw was comfortable in dispatching fuller balls to the boundary as well.
Both batters made excellent decisions based on the pitch’s behavior, and steered the team on the right path. It never looked like the Australian bowlers were bothering them a little bit. At the end of second session, India are at 84/0, with Jaiswal (42*) and Rahul (34*) at the crease.
The pitch has become better for the batters, and the uneven bounce has not been witnessed in the second session. The surface does not seem to have the same lush green cover over it, and it will be interesting to see whether Australia can end the day on a high by securing consistent breakthroughs.
With some cracks developing, Nathan Lyon can also come into play, which sets up for an interesting final session.
