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India skipper Rohit Sharma and his opening partner KL Rahul played cautiously to put 21/0 on the board with India still trailing Australia by 242 runs at stumps on Day 1 in the second Test of Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, on Friday.
Rohit is unbeaten on 13 off 34, hitting one four while Rahul is not out on 4 off 20 balls. Earlier, Indian pacer Mohammed Shami (4/60) picked four wickets along with the spin duo of off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (3/57) and left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja (3/68) took three wickets each to bowl out Australia on 263 in 78.4 overs in the first innings.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, Australia started well with openers Usman Khawaja and David Warner (15 off 44) adding a 50-run opening stand. Khawaja looked confident in his footwork and played strokes all around the park to score 81 off 125 deliveries, including twelve fours and one six. This was the first fifty from the Australian side in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.
The other stand-out batter for Australia was middle-order batter Peter Handscomb, who scored an excellent 72 not out off 142 balls, hitting nine fours to add a crucial 59-run partnership for the fifth wicket along with Khawaja. However, Australia kept losing wickets at regular intervals which made things tougher for them on a typical Delhi pitch.
Coming into bat at No.7, Australia skipper Pat Cummins played a small cameo in the end with his 33 off 59 balls, hitting three fours and two sixes to add a 59-run partnership along with Handscomb for the seventh wicket.
After Cummins was dismissed, there was no support at the other end for Handscomb as Australia failed to cross the 300-run mark and was bundled out on 263 in 78.4 overs.
In reply, Rohit began the innings by playing a square cut past point for four off the second ball of the first over from Cummins. Debutant left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann and off-spinner Nathan Lyon were finding some turn and bounce with the new ball as Indian openers tried to play out the remaining overs.
In the last over of the day, Rohit was given out caught off Lyon at forward short leg which was reviewed straight away by him. The on-field umpire’s decision was eventually overturned with the UltraEdge confirming there was no bat involved as India managed to score 21/0 in nine overs at stumps on Day 1.
Brief scores: India 21/0 in 9 overs (Rohit Sharma 13*, KL Rahul 4*) trail Australia 263/10 in 78.4 overs (Usman Khawaja 81, Peter Handscomb 72*; Mohammed Shami 4/60, Ravichandran Ashwin 3/57, Ravindra Jadeja 3/68) by 242 runs.
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