It’s been an excellent low-scoring contest so far after Day 2 between Australia and India at the SCG but bowling proved to be the better fit for the Aussies though off the back of their underwhelming performance with the bat before they bounced back later on to keep themselves alive in this World Heavyweight Championship like decider for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
For a start, our batting needs to up their game with a mix of single digit to bang average double digit scores wasn’t enough to build a good steady lead over India. The only decent thing about their okay 1st innings batting card is debutant all-rounder Beau Webster who scored 50 on debut and has also took a wicket too where Shubman Gill was caught behind by Alex Carey which was refreshing change indeed – nothing against Mitchell Marsh other than his catches but so far, so good.
For everyone else, they better to not let balls flying through the edges of their bat next time regardless on the run chase target or else no series trophy for them.
Then as said, we were a couple times better when the Aussies were out of the field with the Kookaburra ball for India’s second innings shift once again. Okay, they should’ve not let it slip away with lost runs on the board with Yashasvi Jaiswal from the start alongside Rishabh Pant a while ago who top scored a quickfire 61 runs – not bad from the keeper there.
But at least picking up early wickets was the key to keeping this series race alive and the Aussies have done it once again with six on the board in the hope of finishing up the job first thing for Day 3 tomorrow morning. At the moment, India are currently on 141/6 with a 145 run lead – so no excuses there with little room for missed/dropped catches. We could’ve got seven had the catch have been taken as Pommie Mbangwa said “catches win matches” or at least change up this game.
They’ve already gave a free run to Pant and Jaiswal, the Aussies can’t let the two remaining all-rounders + the tail batters get their lions share of adding runs any longer. Yes, Jasprit Bumrah may have hauled off the field over an injury also earlier today but I imagine he will be back to bat a bit tomorrow. Then we’ll see if he will be brave enough to bowl again that would be crucial to keep this series alive through a long, long way for Team India.
For now, the deciding 5th Test race is still on with still some play left to play for even though there’s 2-3 days to spare. India bouncing back as batting a bit longer and getting the Aussies all out in quick succession would be key while Australia need to limit India’s 2nd innings card under 180-200 and we could hopefully see a much improved batting effort so they can both win the trophy & the World Test Championship Final berth v South Africa.
