Brisbane, 15 December
Australia’s in-form batsmen Travis Head (152) and Steve Smith (101) put on a 241-run partnership for the fourth wicket between the two, helping the hosts win the second day of the third Test cricket match of the Border Gavaskar Trophy against India. Strengthened their position by scoring 405 runs for seven wickets till the end. For India, Jasprit Bumrah took five wickets for 72 runs in 25 overs. By the end of the day’s play, Alex Carey was on 45 and Mitchell Starc was batting with seven runs. Akash Deep, who was playing his first match in the series, also bowled well but did not get success. Nitish Kumar Reddy (one wicket for 65 runs) and Mohammad Siraj (one wicket for 97 runs) got one wicket each.
As most of the first day’s play was affected by rain, the second day’s play started half an hour earlier. Australia started the day with 28 runs for no loss and Bumrah did not take long to give the Indian team their first breakthrough. He got Usman Khawaja caught by wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant in the fourth over of the day. After this, Bumrah also showed Nathan McSweeney the way to the pavilion in his next over. After the early breakthrough, India managed to maintain the pressure but Smith and Marnus Labuschagne resorted to crease defensive play. To give Bumrah a break, captain Rohit Sharma handed over the ball to Reddy and the all-rounder dismissed Labuschagne for 12 runs. After this, Travis Head, who scored a century in the previous match, played some good shots while coming to the crease and combined with Smith to put on a partnership of 241 runs for the fourth wicket. After the dismissal of Smith and Head, wicketkeeper Alex Carey played an unbeaten 45 off 47 balls. He shared an unbeaten 20-run partnership with Starc after adding 58 runs for the seventh wicket with captain Pat Cummins (20). -News-Patiala