India’s Harshit Rana, left, speaks to Australia’s Mitchell Starc after the latter was hit on his helmet by a ball from him on the second day of the first cricket test between Australia and India in Perth, Australia. (AP)
45 minutes before the start of play on second day, Virat Kohli addressed the first Indian team huddle of the day. They would briefly regather later, just before going in for official start of play, but the first seemed a more passionate affair. Kohli kept talking and gesturing, a few kept nodding, and Bumrah stood there, listening intently. They took out the first two wickets quickly, including that of Alex Carey, but couldn’t take out Mitchell Starc quickly enough.
Australia, overnight on 67 for 7, didn’t fold up quickly, adding 35 runs before getting bowled out for 104 at the stroke of lunch, yielding a 46-run lead to India. Mitch Starc offered the chief resistance with an unfussy 26. He added 25 runs with Josh Hazlewood in 18 overs, and it was incidentally Australia’s highest partnership. He faced 112 balls, the highest a batsman from either team has faced in the game. It also reinforced the opening day’s theme: once the Kookaburra ball goes soft around 30 overs, batting becomes far easier, but to enjoy that phase, the top order has to survive the new-ish ball.
Off his first delivery, the seventh of the day, Bumrah got it to kick off back of length around off stump and move away from that round-the-stumps angle. There was enough venom in it to take the outside edge of Alex Carey, who tried to leave but couldn’t. With Carey out of the equation, Australia had lost their best chance to cut down India’s lead. It was also Bumrah’s five-for, his 11th in Tests, and he raised the ball to the stands.
With Kohli taking over the duties to set the fields, India attacked with Harshit Rana and Bumrah. Mitch Starc couldn’t hit out as he can do, but stayed long enough to produce a possible viral-X moment when he swayed away from a bouncer and told the bowler Rana, “I bowl a lot faster than you. And I’ve got a long memory.’.
With a big smile. Both know each other from IPL, and on the evening of the first day, Starc had told reporters that he wasn’t surprised by how well Rana had bowled. In the here-and-now, Rana and him continued to have a friendly chat. A little while later, Starc would duck into a Rana bouncer that didn’t climb as much and copped the blow on his helmet.
Rana couldn’t bounce out Starc but he produced a nasty lifter that angled in to cramp up Lyon. It rammed into his glove and popped up for KL Rahul to amble in, with his long hair jutting out of his cap, to take it.
When Starc brought Australia’s hundred, a few cheers rang around the arena. The last-wicket partnership should have ended after they had added just 4 runs, but Rishabh Pant failed to hold onto a chance to his left offered by Hazlewood off Bumrah.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 23-11-2024 at 10:19 IST
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