New Delhi: Riding on left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja’s best bowling figures in an innings in Test cricket (7/42) along with Ravichandran Ashwin’s spin masterclass, India defeated Australia by six wickets in the second Test within three days to take 2-0 lead in the four-match series at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, here on Sunday.
In a session, where action happened at a frenetic pace, left-arm spinner Jadeja took seven wickets (7/42) while off-spinner Ashwin picked three wickets (3/59) to send Australia crashing to 113 all out in their second innings, 30 minutes before lunch happened.
Ashwin set up the collapse to pick 3/59, before Jadeja ran through the Australian batting line-up and finished with figures of 7/42 as Australia crashed to 113 all out in their second innings, giving India a target of 115, which they completed in 28.4 overs.
The win also means India retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy too, with two matches still left.
Post lunch, resuming from 14/1, India began with an attacking intent. Cheteshwar Pujara danced down the pitch to whip Matthew Kuhnemann through mid-wicket for four. Rohit Sharma came out in the next over to loft over wide mid-wicket for six off Nathan Lyon, followed by paddling off him for four more.
Rohit then danced down the pitch against Kuhnemann, slamming a six over the bowler’s head. But he was run-out in a horrible mix-up and sacrificed himself to keep Pujara at the crease. Pujara and Virat Kohli were positive in their footwork, defence and got the boundaries too.
While Pujara danced down the pitch to loft Lyon over mid-on, Kohli got close to the ball and used his supple wrists to chip a drive past the off-spinner. He followed it up with a gentle tickle through fine leg and placing a flick between two fielders in the square leg region.
Kohli fell for 20 when he was beaten through the air and on the outside edge by Todd Murphy and was stumped from behind by Alex Carey. Pujara and Shreyas Iyer continued to get boundaries on a fast clip — while the former was pristine in punching off Murphy, the latter was splendid in cutting off Lyon and dancing down the pitch against Murphy to get four and six respectively.
In a bid to attack against Lyon, Iyer danced down the pitch again for an expansive slog, but holed out to deep mid-wicket. KS Bharat was gorgeous in driving twice through the extra cover against Lyon and Kuhnemann.
He would go on to drive through cover again off Kuhnemann for boundary and brought the crowd on its feet with a slog-sweep over deep mid-wicket for six off part-timer Travis Head. Pujara, playing in his 100th Test, finished off the chase by dancing down the pitch and flicking over mid-wicket to give India another victory in the series.
Brief scores: Australia 263 and 113 in 31.3 overs (Travis Head 43, Marnus Labuschagne 35; Ravindra Jadeja 7/42, Ravichandran Ashwin 3/59) lost to India 262 in 83.3 overs and 118/4 in 28.4 overs (Rohit Sharma 31, Cheteshwar Pujara 31 not out; Nathan Lyon 2/49, Todd Murphy 1/22) by six wickets.
(IANS)
