The second Test between India and Australia of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 got underway at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on February 17, 2023. India came into this Test with a lead of 1-0 after an innings and 132-run win in the Nagpur match.
Pat Cummins continued his good luck with the toss and won in Delhi as well, choosing to bat first. Australia made two changes as Travis Head replaced Matt Renshaw and Michael Kuhnemann made his Test debut as Australia went with three genuine spinners in the side. India made one change as Shreyas Iyer came into the XI, replacing Suryakumar Yadav.
The opening partnership between David Warner and Usman Khawaja added 50 runs before Shami got rid of Warner once again. But the two big blows came at the hands of wily off-spinner R Ashwin, who removed both Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith in the 23rd over.
First was Marnus, to whom, Ashwin was bowling around the wicket and got one to pitch in the line of the stumps and then turn a bit. Marnus playing forward was caught in front with the ball hitting the stumps.
While the umpire didn’t give it out, India opted for DRS and the replays showed that the ball was in the line of off stump and hitting the middle peg, which sent him back for 18 runs.
Steve Smith was out next and he survived one ball, but on the last ball of the over, Ashwin pushed one delivery a bit wider than what he had bowled to Marnus and Smith tried to prod at it and only got a thing knick, which was caught cleanly by KS Bharat.
Australia was down to 91/3 in 23 overs and in the process, R Ashwin completed 700 wickets in FC cricket as well.
Here is the video:
Earlier, Cheteshwar Pujara was felicitated by Sunil Gavaskar with a special cap as he played his 100th test for India.
