Delhi Test: India Dominate On Opening Day; Australia Show Fight

New Delhi: The opening day of the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy saw the Australian batters put up their best show on the tour, getting to a total of 263 runs in 78.4 overs.

At the end of the day’s play, India were 21 for no loss with openers Rohit Sharma (13*) and KL Rahul (4*) at the crease.

Usman Khawaja (81) and Peter Handscomb (72*) starred for the tourists, meanwhile Mohammad Shami led India’s bowling effort with his 4/60, getting good support from Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.

Handscomb looked quite assured as he took wide front-foot strides to negate the slow turn and occasionally went on the back-foot to punch the spinners on the off side. He hit nine boundaries and, perhaps, played the best knock in three completed Australian innings in the series so far.

But Australia’s dream of a big stand lay shattered when Khawaja went for an ambitious reverse sweep off Jadeja and Rahul plucked a one-handed stunner out of thin air.

Skipper Pat Cummins (33) decided to play a counter-attacking game as Handscomb accumulated runs at the other end.

With his three wickets in the first innings, Ashwin has become the second Indian bowler to take 100 wickets against Australia. Only the great Anil Kumble, with 111 wickets at an average of 30.32, sits ahead of Ashwin.

Ashwin’s partner-in-crime, Ravindra Jadeja became the fastest Indian player, and second-fastest in the world, to achieve the feat of scoring 2500 runs and picking 250 wickets in Tests.