IND vs AUS, WTC Final 2023 Day 2: Australia on top, India behind by 318 amid terrible batting capitulation

Although Ajinkya Rahane and Ravindra Jadeja battled well to keep India in the hunt, it is clearly advantage to Australia at the end of 2nd day’s play. India are behind by 318 runs and will have to restart their rescue mission on Friday (June 9).

IND vs AUS WTC Final 2023, Day 2: As It Happened

The Indian bowling unit made an impressive comeback as it restricted Australia’s first innings score to 469 on the second day of the World Test Championship final on the 2nd day of the match.

Starting the day at 327 for 3, Australia added 147 more runs while losing the remaining seven wickets as Travis Head (163) and Steve Smith (121) were the two prominent contributors. The duo added 285 for the fourth wicket while Alex Carey (48) was the other significant scorer.

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Mohammed Siraj was the most successful bowler for India with figures of 4/108 in 28.3 overs while Mohammed Shami and Shardul Thakur took two wickets apiece. Ravindra Jadeja took the solitary wicket of Carey whereas Mitchell Starc was run out by a brilliant Axar Patel direct hit.

India’s colossal batting collapse

In reply, India made a decent start but soon found themselves in trouble. Captain Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill departed just before Tea, whereas Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli also followed. None of India’s top four could score any more than 15 runs as India were reeling at 71/4.

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Rahane and Ravindra recovery, but Lyon with last smile

India were staring down the barrel but Ajinkya Rahane and Ravindra Jadeja started the rescue mission. The pair batted well, especially Ravindra Jadeja, who took on the Aussie bowlers and played some aggressive shots. The pair added 71 runs for the 5th wicket before Jadeja was picked up by Nathan Lyon after scoring a well-compiled 48 off 51 balls.

At the end of the day, India are 151/5 with Ajinkya Rahane (29 off 71 balls) and KS Bharat (5 off 14 balls) at the crease.