Red Ball Cricket

Written by Shenol M. Wilson

Another day, another interesting results for the cricket fans as the fourth day of the India vs Australia first test unfolded for us. Moving on to the day, India had a significant advantage over the Australia as they had a lead over 520 runs to fight with the Aussies.On the other hand, Australia had only 7 wickets in hand in order to chase this mammoth target.

It was not a very good start for the Aussies to begin the day as experienced Usman Khawaja was dismissed by Mohammed Siraj for just 4 runs. However, ever reliable Travis Head was able to get some sort of stability into the inning by building up 50 runs partnership with Steve Smith.

Unfortunately they were not able to capitalize on it as Mohammed Siraj was able to get the next wicket when the Australian score board was just on 79 runs.

Thereafter, Mitchell Marsh joined with Travis Head to have an aggressive approach to take the momentum back gain to them. They were able to build up a good partnership over 80 runs before ever reliable Indian captain Jasprit Bumrah dismissed Travis Head for 89 runs. Travis Head played beautifully for his 89 runs with classy shots and was able to become the highest scorer for Aussies in the match.

Alex Carey who is in form coming up to the test summer then tried to build up a partnership but it was limited to just 21 runs as Mitchell Marsh was dismissed by Debutant Nitish Kumar Reddy for 47 runs surprisingly. Alex Carey was then left with the bowlers to get this massive target achieved but it was nearly impossible according to cricket statistics. Mitchell Starc tried his best to hold a side as he was able to build up 40 runs plus partnership with Alex Carey before he was dismissed by Washington Sundar who claimed his first wicket for the match.

Getting into form Washington Sundar claimed his second wicket of the match by dismissing his opponent sole spinner Nathan Lyon for duck Thereafter it was just matter of time before the last wicket and after some resistance Alex Carey was dismissed for 36 runs by Debutant Harshit Rana who bowled impressively well throughout the inning. It was his fourth wicket of the match on surely favorable conditions for him.

At the end of the inning and match, Aussies were bundled out for just 238 runs for their second inning and it was really a poor performance by Australia on their home soil considering India came up to the Australian soil after getting defeated by New Zealand in India’s home soil by 3-0 margin.

Finally, India were able to win the match by 295 runs and was able to claim the biggest win in Australian soil in terms of runs. Player of the Match award was given to the Indian Captain Jasprit Bumrah who bowled exceptionally well by getting total of 8 wickets in the match which included 5 Wickets for 30 runs in the first Inning and 3 for 42 runs in the second Inning.

Written by Shenol M. Wilson

It was a unique build up for the First Test Day 3 in this very interesting Test match between India and Australia which will have a lot of effect in deciding the fate of the Test series. First day was a dream day for the bowlers, specially the seamers and the second day was it was a paradise for the Indian Batsmen.

Coming up into the day, experts were even curious to know what the pitch or surface will have on offer as it was creating surprises all the time. India was on a very strong position with a considerable lead on a low scoring match so far and with ten wickets in hand.In addition weather was also not supporting the Australia’s cause as it was very hot and humid with temperature going around 35 degrees Celsius.

Starting the day, India were able to get a good start to add on to the overnight score before KL Rahul was dismissed by Mitchell Starc for 77 runs. Devdutt Padikkal tried to steady a partnership inform Jaiswal but was dismissed by Josh Hazelwood who was very well disciplined in his bowling throughout the innings.

Experienced Virat Kohli then came into the middle and was able to have a steady run with Yashasvi Jaiswal who was able to get 161 runs at his first test Test appearance in Australia. Jaiswal was able to create a remarkable inning and he became the fourth youngest player to get century for India in Australia. However as he was dismissed Indian lower middle order Batsmen Rishabh Pant and Dhurv Jurel was dismissed in quick succession as both of them were able to get only 1 run.

However, taking on the responsibility again to shoulders, the ever reliable Virat Kohli came up with another century as he was able to get exactly 100 runs by being not out and he was given some sort of a support by Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy by getting 29 runs and 38 runs not out respectively.

Talking about the Aussie bowlers, surprisingly Nathan Lyon was the highest wicket taker as he was able to get 2 wickets for 96 runs as all the other main bowlers contributed with one wicket each.

Coming up for the fourth inning of the match at the end of the day, Aussies did have a massive target before them as India was able to create a massive lead of 533 runs as India declared their second inning at 487 runs by losing only 6 wickets. 

Debutant Nathan McSweeney started the inning with experienced Usman Khawaja, but was not able get a very good start as McSweeney was dismissed for a duck by Jasprit Bumrah. 

Night Watchman Pat Cummins was not able to do his duty as he was dismissed by Mohammed Siraj for just 2 runs. At the end of the day to close the day out, Bumrah was again able to get the wicket of Marnus Labuschagne who doesn’t seem to be in form for a while.

At the end of the day, Australia was in a poor position losing 3 wickets for just 12 runs. Coming up for the fourth day, they will have a massive target of 522 runs more to achieve with only 7 wickets in hand.

The win probability do show that India has a chance of 96.5% to win the match but you never know what can happen in cricket if Aussies bat carefully over next 2 days. Finally things are getting ready for an exciting two more days of quality cricket and you do not want to miss out on it.

Gotta say Day 2’s play was all about the best of India both bat and ball with both of their opening batters still not out after a great long afternoon’s worth of fun in the middle. Okay, that opening session from the AM may showed a bit of strength by the Aussies to hold on at the tail end thanks to Mitchell Starc who was their top scorer of 26 over at 9. 

But again, there’s not much time they could do to turn things around when India would have already have wrapped their 1st innings haul right before the lunch break for 104 after just 50 overs.

From there, it was up to the Indian batters to steer well clear ahead of the Aussies and looks they are with great intent when their opening partnership looks as solid as a rock. 

Hats off to youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal (left-handed) who has been amazing with his shot selection every time he knows to pick these right areas – he’s currently on 90 with KL Rahul also excellent at the other supporting end with his own 50 & he’s on 62. 

India are currently on 0-172 with a 218 run lead going into Day 3 tomorrow as would be great if Jaiswal and Rahul score both of their own 100s & they wouldn’t worry a single bit to bring their bowlers to guide them home sometime between the next 3rd session tomorrow & Day 4 Monday.

Meanwhile, it’s been a hugely underwhelming and heavy-hitting day for the Aussies other than showing a bit of strength by their tail enders. 

There was hope they can finish the Indian 2nd innings total real fast like they did earlier during Day 1 yesterday but it’s a shame these missed catches cost them so dearly and they finished off Day 2 with no wickets on hand. 

They better come back real fast to quickly dismantle the whole lot first thing tomorrow morning & do whatever it takes to meet that run target. But it’s up to the bowlers to restrict as low as possible first, then we may as well see a stunning comeback if they do so as they possibly can on what Test Cricket is all about to kickstart this five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy Series. 

The Aussies better have this done by using it or else forget about this to lose it & move on with this 2nd Day/Night Adelaide Test.

Could you believe how the opening day turned out of the new Test summer against India? It was unreal through a whole seven hours worth of on-pitch work but couldn’t see that coming there when things can turn so fast in such short time.

We began the morning run (afternoon over in the Eastern states) with India winning the toss, chose to batted first and then lost their way up to a lowly 150 whereas Australia were outstanding with the ball & also on the field hands down thanks to their still stronghold bowling attack.

But when the Aussies got their chance to bat in the middle though in between tea and the late afternoon session, they too unfortunately unable to capitalise with lots of single and bare double digit figures — and somehow looks like India is still hanging in there up front at 67-7 going into Day 2. Shoutout to Jasprit Bumrah on another amazing bowling spell including a test debut to remember from Harshit Rama after he bowled out Travis Head. 

That doesn’t mean the Aussies have no reason why they cannot turn things around with keeper Alex Carey being the last best batter standing on 19 alongside fast bowler Mitchell Starc on 6. Let’s hope a 50 from Carey would do it to hopefully bring their bowlers back to more quick damage to the Indian batters if the Aussies can’t meet the 83 run trail sometime tomorrow. 

And last but not least, also want to give a shoutout to Nathan McSweeney, who also began his Test career today with some quickfire runs on the board as Test opener, with Usman Khawaja after an amazing impact – especially at Sheffield Shield level.

It’s a shame he was unluckily being picked on by Bumrah for 10 over his successful LBW review that was sadly fair by the umpire but he’s 25 and still has lots of time to make a David Warner like impact off his right hand though over the next few days & weeks to come – one to watch from our batters.

For now, looks like we will see more early quickfire moments on Day 2 tomorrow after a bowling dominant contest, with India set to bowl the Aussies out possibly under 100. Then the 2nd innings is on this time to maybe slow things down a bit to build a big score in the hope of going 1-0 up in the five-match (up from four now) Border Gavaskar Trophy series.