India vs Australia 4th Test: The fourth match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series is being played between India and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The Indian team has created history in this Boxing Day Test match. The first Test was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1877 and since then many matches took place on this ground and many records were made, but India has made a record which no team had ever been able to make before. Let us tell you, in this match, Australia won the toss and decided to bat on the first day and the team scored 311 runs at the loss of 6 wickets till the stumps on the first day.
For Australia, Sam Constas, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith scored half-centuries on the first day, while for India, Bumrah took three wickets. On the second day, the Australian team was all out for 474 runs. Smith, who scored a half-century on the first day, completed his century on the second day. By the end of the day’s play, India had scored 164 runs at the loss of 5 wickets. In such a situation, the score was more than 300 on both the days of this test match. This happened for the fourth time in the history of Melbourne Cricket Ground, when more than 300 runs were scored on both the opening days of the Test.
This first happened in the match between Australia and South Africa in the year 1910-1911. After this, this happened in the match between Australia and England in 1924-1925. Whereas the last time in 2003-2004, more than 300 runs were scored on both the opening days of the match between Australia and India. In such a situation, the Indian team is the first team in the history of Test cricket, which has been involved on two occasions in scoring more than 300 runs on the first two days of the Test matches held in Melbourne.
If we talk about the match, despite the brilliant innings of 82 runs by opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, India faltered and lost its five wickets for just 164 runs on Friday, the second day of the fourth Boxing Day Test against Australia. India is currently 310 runs behind Australia and is in danger of follow-on.
India was looking in a comfortable position in the last session by scoring 153 runs for two wickets, but then with the run out of Jaiswal, the visiting team lost three wickets in a span of six runs and its score became 159 runs for five wickets. At the time of stumps, Rishabh Pant is at the crease after scoring six runs and Ravindra Jadeja has scored four runs. Now this pair has a big responsibility to get India out of the crisis on the third day tomorrow.
Australian captain Pat Cummins pushed India on the backfoot by taking the wickets of captain Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul soon after the start of the Indian innings. Rohit scored 3 runs in 5 balls before being caught by Scott Boland on the last ball of the second over of the innings off Cummins. At that time India’s score was 8 runs.
After this, KL Rahul’s wicket fell on India’s score of 51 runs. Rahul was bowled by Cummins’ ball. He scored 24 runs in 42 balls before getting out. Jaiswal and Virat Kohli then took over the innings and made a century partnership for the third wicket. Both of them batted carefully and played aggressive shots on loose balls. Jaiswal was a little more aggressive.
At this time it seemed that India was now in a good position. The game was going well and both the batsmen were scoring a lot of runs. But just 16-17 minutes before the end of the second day’s play, something happened, due to which India again came under pressure. Jaiswal drove the ball near the mid-on fielder and ran for a run, but was run out. Kohli, who was batting patiently for 82 balls and avoiding shots on the off side, was caught by the wicketkeeper while manipulating the ball on the seventh-eighth stump after Jaiswal’s dismissal.
After this, Akashdeep, who proved to be a trouble-shooter for India in the last match and saved the follow-on, also soon returned to the pavilion. On many occasions in this match, it seemed that India could make a successful comeback, but it could not succeed. Jaiswal hit 11 fours and 1 six in his innings of 82 runs in 118 balls. Virat Kohli was out after scoring 36 runs in 86 balls with the help of four fours. For Australia, Cummins and Scott Boland took two wickets each. Earlier, Australia’s first innings ended at 474 runs. Steve Smith scored 140 runs. He completed his 34th Test century with the help of 13 fours and three sixes in his innings.
(With inputs from IANS)
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