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WICKET! Peter Handscomb c Kohli b Jadeja 0 (Australia 95-6)
Another one gone! This time Handscomb drives at Jadeja and thick edges behind where Virat Kohli swallow it whole. Just when Australia needed calm play and cool heads, Handscomb – so brilliant and brave in the first dig – has a brain explosion and tries to carve against the spin. Fantastic ball by Jadeja but not a shot Handscomb will enjoy seeing on replay.
WICKET! Matthew Renshaw LBW Ashwin 2 (Australia 95-5)
Renshaw is history! Ashwin had him utterly bamboozled that over and finally, on the final ball, he threw one in short and Renshaw reached out those long levers to tickle another reverse sweep and missed it completely. Plum LBW and Australia capitulating again.
23rd over: Australia 95-4 (Renshaw 2, Handscomb 0) Big shout from Ashwin on Renshaw! But having frittered a review, India let it go. And rightly so, it was going down leg. Renshaw advances to the fourth and is rapped on the pad. There’s a half-appeal but nothing comes of it. But the appeal on the final ball is MASSIVE and the onfield decision is OUT. Australia will review…
22nd over: Australia 95-4 (Renshaw 2, Handscomb 0) Another reverse sweep by Renshaw off Jadeja! That’s very risky but again it works, if only for a single. He’s playing with fire the big Queenslander! With Labuschagne gone from the third ball, it’s first innings hero Peter Handscomb playing out the over
WICKET! Marnus Labuschagne b. Jadeja 35 (Australia 95-4)
Farewell Marnus! He’s been done like a dinner by a Ravi Jadeja fast ball which stayed low and caught the bottom edge, cannoning into off stump. Jadeja has been expensive – 38 runs from his eight overs – but he’s got two huge wickets and that’s a deal India will take every day of the week.
21st over: Australia 93-3 (Labuschagne 34, Renshaw 1) Ashwin sends a warning! Matt Renshaw was wandering down from the non-strikers end when Ashwin calmly held onto the ball instead of delivering it. No eye contact, no lip, but a warning nonetheless. And a fresh devil in the already-confused cranium of Renshaw. He outruns that devil with a single. And then Labuschagne’s Luck kicks in as he clips off his toes and it’s dropped by Shreyas at silly mid-on! That was very catchable but he didn’t get a hand on it. Needs to seek out Peter Handscomb for some juggling tips after play, perhaps?
20th over: Australia 90-3 (Labuschagne 32, Renshaw 0) Renshaw walks out with Australia suddenly in trouble. They have come out swinging as predicted and whacked 28 runs but they have lost the key wickets of Head and Smith so it’s a tactic that has backfired. Can Labuschagne rescue them again. He belts a four and runs a single to signal he can and will not be cowed doing so. Renshaw is yet to face a ball.
WICKET! Steve Smith LBW Ashwin 9 (Australia 85-3)
Massive moment in this Test! Smith is out cheaply again to Ashwin. He got down on one knee for the sweep but wily Ravi saw him coming and shortened his arc of delivery meaning Smith was caught reaching too far and swishing too hard for it. It missed the toe of the bat and replays show it hitting the stumps. Suddenly Australia are reeling!
19th over: Australia 84-2 (Labuschagne 27, Smith 9) Evasive action from Marnus! Ravi Ashwin has switched to over the wicket for this over and he sent the first one fizzing in flat and full, meaning Labuschagne had to jam down hard to keep it out. He tries again on the third. Is there a three-card trick emerging here? We’ll never know because Smith scamper to the striker’s end when his partner squirts one past silly mid-off. Big shout on the last! Smith tried to sweep and it rushed on and thumped into the pads. Onfield decision is OUT but Smith will review…
18th over: Australia 84-2 (Labuschagne 26, Smith 9) Here comes Jadeja, with his high-pony bouncing and his slingshot arm whipping them in at 90kph. Smith is watchful to the first two but he skips down to the third, which is flatter and fuller, and puts it over the top for four. Smith then strokes another two onto the offside to keep the run rate rattling at 4.7 and extend Australia’s lead to 85.
17th over: Australia 78-2 (Labuschagne 26, Smith 3) Even on the extremely rare occasions Steve Smith isn’t scoring runs he never quite looks out of form. (Maybe that’s because, with all with his shivers and tics, he never looks like any batter in the world). Here he takes an easy single when Ashwin strays to leg. And now Labuschagne stands tall and reverse sweeps for four! Big shout on the fifth though! Marnus marched down but had to defend when Ashwin changed the angle of his arm. Another shout for LBW as Labuschagne’s reverse sweep goes awry on the final ball and he gets struck on back pad. Onfield decision is NOT OUT but India will review… but it’s missing. Review wasted!
16th over: Australia 72-2 (Labuschagne 22, Smith 1) Ashwin the Destoyer returns. After Labuschagne runs a single from the first Smith gets off the pair by dabbing a single from the second. Days one and two have shown us that batting is trickiest in this morning session when the ball is hard and new. The pitch appears to be cracking up fast but it’s a chilly 19 in Delhi and morning dew and some overnight sweating under the covers create intriguing conditions. None of it worries Labuschagne who whips Ashwin through covers to the rope. Shot!
15th over: Australia 66-2 (Labuschagne 17, Smith 0) The curiously out-of-sorts Smith gets this Jadeja over from the non-strikers end as Labuschagne faces his first sighters of the day. He takes a single from the second and Smith, averagingh 60+ and with Test 8000 runs to his name, gets to battle his way off a pair. But to four balls straight he hits but doesn’t run.
WICKET! Travis Head c Bharat b Ashwin 43 (Australia 65-2)
India strike! Head belted a boundary earlier and his eyes lit up again when Ashwin tossed his last ball of the over up. But it was a trap and Head fell hook, line and sinker. Falling forward, his gentle swish caught only the edge and the wicketkeeper Bharat did the rest.
13th over: Australia 65-1 (Head 43, Labuschangne 16) Let battle commence! Head starts as he means to go on with a four and Ashwin will have to come up with a new tactic or it could be an expensive morning.
As the players warm up in the Delhi haze, plenty of questions are quivering behind the scenes: will Australia come out swinging again and kick on for a commanding lead? Or will India’ spinners strike afresh to send them into a slump as in the First Test? Can Travis Head vanquish his subcontinental demons at last with a career-defining innings? Does India defend against him or attack in this first session? Will Marnus Labuschagne show India why he’s the world’s No 1 batter? Or will Virat Kohli get in his ear and remind him who’s King? And what’s with Steve Smith? The twitchy mad genius of Australian cricket got a second ball duck in the first dig and had another bad case of the butterfingers in the field. Can he recover to bat Australia into a match-winning lead? We’re about to find out…
Day two was a rollercoaster. Strap yourself in and get prepped for day three with Geoff Lemon’s match report…
Preamble
What a Test we have here in Delhi between India and Australia! Evenly poised after two days, full of epic redemption stories, dappled with controversy and travelling at warp-speed.
Australia batted with gusto on day one for a strong 263, thanks to excellent knocks from the redoubtable Usman Khawaja and a reborn Peter Handscomb. India’s response on day two was rattled by Nathan Lyon’s resurgence. Chastened after his one wicket return in the first Test, “Gaz” rediscovered his mojo to take four wickets for eight runs in just 15 overs in the morning session.
And when Lyon bagged his five-for after lunch and debutant Matthew Kuhnemann sensationally removed Virat Kohli for 44, India collapsed to 139-7, still 126 runs behind with only three wickets in hand. But then this series took yet another amazing twist as India’s champion allrounders Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel counter-punched for a wonderful century stand.
The difference in these two innings over two days between two great nations in Test Two? ONE RUN! India 262. Australia 263.
Dead-level (almost), with 13 overs to survive and David Warner out of the match with concussion, Khawaja walked out with new opening partner Travis Head. Shockingly axed for Nagpur, out cheaply in the first innings and batting in an unfamiliar spot, Head had every right to be nervous. Instead he cut loose, smashing sixes and fours all round the ground. By stumps he was 39 not out, his critics were eating Delhi crow and Australia were 61-1 and back in front.
What brand of crazy beautiful Test cricket will day three deliver? We’re about to find out…
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