Team India suffered a heavy 184-run defeat in the Boxing Day Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Monday (December 30).
Chasing 340, India found themselves reeling at 33/3 in the first session, with Rohit Sharma (9), KL Rahul (0) and Virat Kohli (5) falling cheaply. Subsequently, the duo of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant added 88 runs for the fourth wicket.
Travis Head broke the partnership by removing Pant on 30. The wicketkeeper-batter’s dismissal triggered a collapse as the visitors lost Ravindra Jadeja (2) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1) in quick succession.
Jaiswal was looking set for his second hundred of the series, but his gritty knock of 84 came to an end in a controversial fashion as the third umpire adjudged him caught behind even though there was no spike on RTS.
Jaiswal’s wicket was the final in the coffin. There was no one to support Washington Sundar (5*) as the fast-bowling trio of Akash Deep, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj failed to step up with the bat for India this time around.
Pat Cummins and Scott Boland returned with three wickets each while Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon and Travis Head shared the remaining four scalps among them as Australia bundled out India for 155 in 79.1 overs with around 14 overs of play left in the day.
With this victory, Australia took a 2-1 lead in Border-Gavaskar Trophy and also increased their chances of playing the WTC final against South Africa at Lord’s next year. On the other hand, this loss has severely dented India’s chances of reaching the WTC final.
Members of the cricket fraternity lauded the Australian team on a memorable Test victory at MCG while they slammed India’s flop show with the bat.
Here are the reactions:
