The second Test of the four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 series between India and Australia came to a fitting end as the hosts defeated the visitors by 6 wickets and went 2-0 up in the series.
Australia had the game in their hands as day three started and they resumed on 61/1 with Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne taking guard. It was expected that Australia will try to put up a competitive total on the board and set a tough target for India to chase.
However, Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin ran through the Aussie batting lineup who chose to die by the sweep shot, playing it on every delivery possible. Travis Head with 43 and Marnus Labuschagne with 35 were the only Australians to reach double-figures as they were bowled out for 113 runs.
IND v AUS 2023: Cricket fraternity left stunned as Jadeja-Ashwin combo routs Australia for 113
Jadeja, who had completed 250 Test wickets in the first innings, picked career-best figures of 7/42 and completed 10 wickets in the match as well. R Ashwin picked 3/59 as well.
In the chase, Rohit Sharma started off well with 31 off 20 balls while KL Rahul’s poor form continued as he was out for 1 run. Rohit got run out in a misunderstanding with Pujara after hitting 3 fours and 2 sixes. Virat Kohli was then stumped for 20 runs during which he completed 25,000 runs in international cricket.
He became only the second Indian after Sachin Tendulkar (34357) and 6th overall after the likes of Mahela Jayawardena, Kumar Sangakkara, Ricky Ponting, and Jacques Kallis to reach the landmark.
Lyon also got rid of Shreyas Iyer who looked adventurous, but Cheteshwar Pujara with 31* anchored one end and KS Bharat showed his batting talent with a quick 23* as Pujara hit the winning runs and took India to victory with 6 wickets in hand.
Ravindra Jadeja was named the Player of the Match, his second consecutive award in the series. India went 2-0 up in the four-Test series and retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the third consecutive time.
The cricket fraternity was all ecstatic about a clinical win by the Indian team and lauded them on Twitter.
Here are the tweets:
