A scintillating show by spin twins Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, including a seven-for by the latter, saw Australia being skittled out for 113 in their second innings of the ongoing second test at Delhi’s Ferozshah Kotla on Sunday, setting the hosts a target of 115 runs to take an uassailable 2-0 lead in the series for the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
At lunch, India’s score read 14/1, with skipper Rohit Sharma (12*) and Cheteshwar Pujara (1*) at the crease.
Australia resumed their innings at 61/1, with Travis Head 39*, Marnus Labuschagne 16* seeking to build on the visitors’ lead.
Ashwin struck for the hosts early in the session, dismissing a dangerous Head for 43 off 46 balls and reducing Australia to 65/2.
The duo of Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne then took the innings forward, adding 20 more runs before Ashwin sent back Smith for just 9. Australia was 85/3 in 19 overs.
Following this, Jadeja-Ashwin ripped apart the rest of the Aussie batting attack, with the ball keeping low and shooting off the surface.
The Aussies were eventually bundled out for 113 runs in just 31.1 overs. Only Head and Labuschagne could reach double digits.
Jadeja got the lion’s share of Aussie wickets, finishing with his career-best figures in Test of 7/42 in 12.1 overs. Ashwin scalped 3/59 in 16 overs.
Chasing 115, India lost KL Rahul for just 1, extending his lean patch in the red-ball format. Nathan Lyon had him caught behind by wicketkeeper Alex Carey. The Indian score read 6/1 in 1.1 overs.
Rohit and Pujara then took India through to lunch without any further damage.
Brief Scores: India: 262 and 6/1 (Rohit Sharma 12*, Cheteshwar Pujara 1*, Nathan Lyon 1/2) vs Australia: 263 and 113 (Travis Head 43, Marnus Labuschagne 35, Ravindra Jadeja 7/42). (ANI)
