The second day of the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy saw Australia bat over two and a half sessions on a placid wicket.
India had to contend with two resilient batting stands on a day which provided little to no help to the bowlers. After managing to bowl Australia out for 480, the hosts stood at 36 without loss at the end of day’s play.
Overnight batters Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green made the most of good batting conditions at Ahmedabad. India switched back and forth between pace and spin options in search of a breakthrough, but there was no stopping the Australia duo.
They took a special liking to Umesh Yadav’s bowling, milking 37 runs off his six overs. Khawaja and Green extended their stand for the fifth-wicket to 208. This is the highest fifth-wicket stand for Australia against India in India.
Khawaja defied India’s bowlers till Tea, after which the southpaw was trapped lbw by Axar Patel.
During his innings of 180, Khawaja became the player with third-highest individual score for Australia against India in India.
Ashwin brought India their first breakthrough of the day. Going for a sweep, Green gloved one down the legside to the keeper Srikar Bharat. The all-rounder walked back at 114. This was his maiden Test ton.
One dismissal brought another as Alex Carey threw his arms at an Ashwin delivery which turned away from him, but could muster only a leading edge towards Axar at short third man.
The Australia total hadn’t moved too far ahead when they lost two more wickets in the form of Mitchell Starc and Khawaja.
At 409/8, India would’ve looked forward to batting soon, but Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy had other plans. The duo added 70 runs for the ninth-wicket, tiring the India fielders further on a hot day. Finally, it was Ashwin who got their wickets to bring the Australia innings to an end.
During his 6/91, Ashwin became India’s leading wicket-taker against Australia in Test cricket. He overtook India legend Anil Kumble in the process. The off-spinner now has 113 Test wickets against Australia as compared to Kumble’s 111.
