Jadejahelpshostsfight, Oznoseahead
PROMISING Shaun Marsh, Matt Renshaw score fifties to help Australia take lead
Indian bowlers led a grim battle against the Australian batsmen to pull back the advantage of the visitors on an attritional Day 2 of the second Test at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday.
Australia batsmen showed remarkable application, the kind of patience their Indian counterparts did not show as they were shot out for 189 in their first innings on the first day.
Opening batsman Matt Renshaw showed maturity far beyond his 20 years to score 60, his second half-century of the series. Fellow left-hander Shaun Marsh took over from there, scoring 66 to give Australia a crucial first innings lead.
Ravindra Jadeja’s three wickets backed by lion-hearted efforts from pacers Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav, and Ravichandran Ashwin, who bowled a marathon 41 overs but took just one wicket, kept Australia’s lead under check.
At stumps, Australia were for 237 for six,ts, a lead of 48 runs. Mathew Wade was batting on 25 and Mitchell Starc was 14 not out.India managed to take just one wicket in the final session, that of Shaun Marsh, but would have been into the tail if Wriddhiman Saha had not dropped a tough chance off Starc, India’s third clear lapse in this innings.
It was attritional cricket at its best and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin provided the first breakthrough when he bowled opener David Warner in the sixth over of the day, the ball zipping off the rough outside the left-hander’s leg-stump.
With Virat Kohli employing a pace-spin attack, runs came in a trickle. Australia scored just 47 runs losing two wickets in the morning and 76 runs for three wickets in the afternoon, reaching 163 for five at tea.
Jadeja, surprisingly not given a decent spell early, struck in his third over of the morning to have Steven Smith, who hit a century in the first Test in Pune, caught by wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha off bat and pad, for eight.
Taken off immediately, but brought back midway into the post-lunch session he accounted for Renshaw, having the increasingly confident opener stumped