Kohli makes history as the Aussies suffer
AUSTRALIAN cricket was reeling under the weight of unwanted records as India closed in on an emphatic first series win Down Under.
Virat Kohli became the first Test captain to have the option of asking the hosts to follow-on twice in an Australian summer on the penultimate day of the fourth Test in Sydney.
Australia were dismissed for 300, conceding a first-innings lead of 322 before Kohli sent Tim Paine’s men back in to bat for the first time at home since Mike Gatting made them follow- on in 1988. Australia reached 6-0 in their second innings before bad light stopped play.
India, 2-1 up in the four-match series, had also amassed a 292-run first-innings lead in Melbourne last week, only on that occasion they opted to bat again themselves in the 137-run thrashing.
In total, Australia have only conceded a 200-run deficit when batting second in a Test 43 times in their history, and just 16 times at home. Among the other landmarks, yesterday’s 322-run deficit is also the third- largest in Australia’s history at the SCG, and the biggest since 1936.
Australia are also at risk of going through a four-Test home series without a century scored, with just this innings left.
India’s first innings score of 622 for seven declared was the sixth highest score by a visiting team in Australia, while it also marked the first time a visiting team had declared for three innings in a row in the country.
Meanwhile, at the Adelaide Oval, a superb T20 innings from Kent and England all- rounder Joe Denly guided Sydney Sixers to a six-wicket win over defending Big Bash champions Adelaide Strikers.
Denly hit an unbeaten 76 from 60 balls to steer his side to their target of 151 and jump above the Strikers in the table. Denly’s previous best score in six innings of this year’s Big Bash League was just 14.
SOUTh AfRICA scored the 41 runs needed to beat Pakistan in the second Test in Cape Town to clinch the three-match series with a comprehensive nine-wicket triumph.