India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin entered an elite list during the second day of the second Border Gavaskar Trophy Test match in New Delhi. Struggling to reply to Australia’s first innings score of 263, India were led by Axar Patel and Ashwin. Both have shared a stand of worth more than a hundred for the eighth wicket in the final session at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
While Axar has been the anchor, Ashwin was the second fiddle. As of writing this report, he has already scored 37 unbeaten runs off 70 balls. Meanwhile, he also entered an elite list of having completed a double of 700 Test wickets as well as 5,000 Test runs.
He is the fifth Indian to do so and preceded by some of the legends of the game: Vinoo Mankad, S Venkataraghvan, Kapil Dev and Anil Kumble.
Australian spinners led by the peerless Nathan Lyon strangled the star-studded Indian batting line-up as the hosts struggled to reach 179 for seven at tea on the second day of the second Test here on Saturday.
Lyon (5/41 in 20 overs) led Australia’s fightback with his 22nd five-wicket haul as the Indian batters’ weakness against spin bowlers was exposed once again.
At the break, all-rounders Ravichandran Ashwin (11 batting) and Axar Patel (28 batting) were trying to stem the rot with a 40-run eighth-wicket partnership. At tea, India remained 84 runs behind Australia’s first innings score of 263.
Virat Kohli (44 off 84 balls) and Ravindra Jadeja (26 off 74 balls) did steady the innings in the post-lunch session by adding 59 runs for the fifth wicket but Todd Murphy (1/37 in 14 overs), in his second Test, and debutant left-arm spinner Matt Kuhnemann (1/64 in 20 overs) dismissed the duo in quick succession to put the visitors on top.
There are still no demons in the track even though cracks have appeared to make the ball turn and jump. The difference between the Australian spin attack’s better show compared to Nagpur certainly would be the pace off the Kotla track.
Credit must be given to Lyon and the two young spinners for keeping up the pressure despite losing three referrals in the first hour of the second morning.
Kohli, who looked composed and assured of a big one, would consider himself unlucky that he had to head back due to an umpire’s call.
(With Agencies)
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