India vs Australia, 2nd Test, Day 4 lunch report: Hazlewood’s 6-fer rocks back the hosts, Aus needs 188 runs to win

The Indian team finally lost its breath after scoring 274 in 97.1 overs by the lunch break and now Australia needs 188 runs to win the 2nd Test in Bengaluru

By: Score Keepers |
March 7, 2017 11:42 am

After gaining a rock solid stability on day 3, Team India resumed their batting at 213/4 on day 4 of the second game of the India vs Australia series in Bengaluru. Both Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane became a reason to worry for the Aussies overnight as their crucial partnership compelled the guests to renew their strategy to start the game on a new day.

On the other hand, both Rahane and Pujara looked pretty confident and made sure that they need to spend much time on the crease to set a tough target for the Aussies. Ajinkya Rahane scored his 11th Test half century. But soon he was distracted where he lost his concentration while Mitchell Starc gulped him down. There was a leg before appeal but the umpire said no. Smith contemplated a review and finally, he was given out. Followed by Rahane, Pujara who was going strong and moving ahead towards his century was hindered by the pacer Josh Hazlewood and Pujara was dismissed after he had scored 92 off 221 balls. Both Rahane and Pujara added 118 runs for the 5th wicket.

Batsmen post 5th wicket could not do anything special which could carry the Indian inning much forward with few runs more in their account. Karun Nair went for a golden duck while Ashwin could only manage to score 2 runs. While Wriddhiman Saha, Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma scored 20, 1 and 6 runs respectively. Once again the tail enders failed to add some glory to the run count or show some consistency on the crease.

In the second innings, it was a pacer after a long time who came out with flying colours and caused the majority of destruction. After the typhoon created by Steeve O’Keefe and Nathan Lyon, there came Josh Hazlewood on day 4 who took 6 wickets and hunted down Abhinav Mukund, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and Umesh Yadav.

The Indian team finally lost its breath after scoring 274 in 97.1 overs by the lunch break and now Australia needs 188 runs to win the 2nd Test in Bengaluru.