2nd Test, Day 3: India lose Rahul early in chase of 115 after Jadeja leads Australia demolition job

New Delhi: India lost opener KL Rahul early in the second innings in a run chase of 115 as they were 14/1 in four overs at lunch on day three of second Test against Australia at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, here on Sunday.

In a session where action happened on a frenetic pace, left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja registered his best bowling figures in an innings in Test cricket by taking seven wickets (7/42) while off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin picked three wickets (3/59) to send Australia crashing to 113 all out in their second innings, 30 minutes before lunch happened.

India captain Rohit Sharma began the chase of 115 by driving the ball wide of mid-on for a boundary off Matthew Kuhnemann in the opening over. But in the next over, he lost his opening partner KL Rahul in an unlucky fashion. Rahul flicked well to the right of short leg, but the ball lobbed up in the air after hitting the top of forward short leg’s pad and the keeper took an easy catch.

On the other hand, Rohit had exquisite timing in whipping an overpitched delivery off Kuhnemann between deep mid-wicket and long-on. He, unbeaten on 12, and Cheteshwar Pujara, at one not out, ensured India didn’t lose any more wickets till lunch arrived. India now need 101 more runs to take a 2-0 lead in the four-match series.

Earlier, starting the Day 3, Ashwin set up the collapse with his 3/59, before Jadeja ran through the Australian batting line-up. Five out of Jadeja’s seven wickets were clean bowled, giving him his second ten-wicket haul in Test cricket.

Australia, on the other hand, will be mighty disappointed by some extremely questionable shot selection and squandering the advantage they had at stumps on day two. Resuming from 61/1, with a healthy run-rate of 5.08 at the end of day two, Australia imploded spectacularly to lose nine wickets for 53 runs in the morning session on day three.

They were playing the sweep and reverse sweep as if this was the only way to play against spin on a pitch which had variable bounce and turn. Travis Head began day three by driving wide of cover against Ashwin. But two balls later, Ashwin got Head to come forward and fox him by getting the ball to turn in late and take a faint inner edge behind to wicketkeeper KS Bharat.

Marnus Labuschagne then took two boundaries off Ashwin — a paddle through fine leg was followed by reverse sweep going wide of backward point. Ashwin had trapped Labuschagne lbw, but India lost the review as replays showed impact of the delivery being outside of off-stump.

Ashwin got success when Steve Smith tried to sweep big off him. But the ball stayed low, and turned in from outside the off-stump to hit him in front of stumps. Smith went for a review, but the decision was still in India’s favour as replays showed the umpire’s call on hitting the leg stump.

From the other end, Jadeja struck by castling Labuschagne with an arm-ball that kept low and with the right-handed batter on backfoot, the ball skid through to take out the off-stump. More trouble followed Australia as Matthew Renshaw fell lbw to Ashwin while going for an expansive sweep.

Peter Handscomb, who made 72 not out in the first innings, came forward for a drive off Jadeja. But the ball turned and took the outside edge to Virat Kohli for a sharp first slip catch. On the very next ball, Pat Cummins tried to slog-sweep off Jadeja, but was castled for a golden duck.

Ashwin was then swept and lofted for a four each by Nathan Lyon and Alex Carey. But Carey became Jadeja’s fifth victim when he missed the ball on his pre-mediated reverse-sweep, and saw his leg-stump being knocked over.

Jadeja then got his sixth wicket when Nathan Lyon went for a big drive, but the ball took the thick inside-edge to knock over leg-stump. He finished off the innings by having Kuhnemann chop to the stumps off a reverse sweep.

Brief scores: Australia 263 and 113 in 31.3 overs (Travis Head 43, Marnus Labuschagne 35; Ravindra Jadeja 7/42, Ravichandran Ashwin 3/59) lead India 262 in 83.3 overs and 14/1 in four overs by 101 runs.

–IANS