Kohli leads by example to steady ship for India

Skipper Virat Kohli led India’s fightback from 8-2 to 172-3 at stumps yesterday on the second day in reply to Australia’s 326 all out in the second Test.

With seven first-innings wickets left, India trail Australia by 154 runs at Perth Stadium.

Kohli, who ended the day on 82 not out, found a perfect ally in his deputy Ajinkya Rahane (51 not out) with the pair sharing an undefeated 90-run stand. Kohli also put on 74 runs for the third wicket with Cheteshwar Pujara after the Australian pace attack had made early inroads.

Earlier, resuming the day on 277-6, Australia lost their last four wickets for only 16 runs in 22 balls. Top-ranked Kohli hit four boundaries in the first nine balls he faced and forced swing bowler Josh Hazlewood out of the attack. Kohli began by driving the second ball he faced for four off Hazlewood, and in the next over hit three more and made batting look easy on a surface that was producing some disconcerting bounce.

He later brought up his 20th half-century in his 75th Test, following scores of 3 and 34 in the series opener in Adelaide. Kohli has so far hit nine fours in his innings. Australia’s newball pair of Starc and Hazlewood had wasted no time in claiming Indian wickets. Starc bowled Murali Vijay (0) with a ball that swung late as India took lunch on 6-1. In the third over after the break, Lokesh Rahul (2) was beaten for pace by Hazlewood and was bowled.