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Going to be led by Jasprit Bumrah instead of regular captian Rohit Sharma, India seek series parity as the fifth and final Test of a highly entertaining Test series unfolds in Sydney. India are the Border-Gavaskar Trophy holders so a win in the ultimate clash will mean they get to retain the bragging rights. Australia, on the other hand, will be keen to lay their hands on the coveted silverware for the first time in ten years.
That’s curtains on the opening day. 11 wickets fell for a total of 194 runs. The grassy deck at SCG clearly was a bowler’s friend. India were stomped to 185, with Boland, Starc and Cummins sharing the ruins.
Konstas is no shrinking violet and he looked eager to do crazy stuff at the crease but he riled up Bumrah with two balls left in the day’s play and took an L, to borrow from the Gen Z parlance, as Khawaja was sent packing next ball.
Bumrah has been operating at the top of his powers in this series and it wasn’t prudent from the young man to try and get under the skin of the accomplished campaigner. He found himself at the receiving end of raucous celebrations as India dented Australia early, prolonging Khawaja’s lukewarm series. The second day has a more sizzling appeal to it because of the events that transpired in the dying embers.
𝐋𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝. 𝐋𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐥. 𝐋𝐞𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐲💥
Test cricket is an absolute package!😍#INDvsAUS #BGT25 #CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/jsyzwN7EZ7
— Aryan Surana (@iamaryansurana) January 3, 2025
Among those who bowled at least 15 overs in an innings in the Tests wherein data was recorded, no bowler has induced more false shots in an innings than Scott Boland’s 46.2% today for which he returned figures of 4/31, including the wicket of in-form Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli, who looked like he would slay his demons today as he kept leaving balls outside the off-stump.
The metronomic seamer has once again again proved to be India’s nemesis. India had a partnership going in the form of Pant and Jadeja but Boland provided the breakthrough by claiming the keeper-bat. The very next ball he dislodged Nitish Reddy for a duck and India were left reeling. Starc also picked up three wickets and got the timely wicket of Jadeja with a full ball which orchestrated the quick end. The southpaw should’ve played an on-drive instead of a flick as his head fell over and he played all over the full and straight half-volley.
The afternoon session served up an intense tussle between disciplined bowling and iffy yet valiant batting. For a change, Rishabh Pant took the less scenic route to survival this time around, just putting his head down and curbing his natural instincts to steer India close to the 100-run mark. The bowling has been on point from the hosts. Will Pant continue to play in the same fashion on the other side or will he revert to type, as suggested by the late charge in this session?
Difficult chance, but should have been taken at the international level. Jadeja hung his bat out to defend and the outside edge scooted low to the left of Lyon at gully, the offie stuck out his hand and it didn’t stick. A look of disappointment from the debutant Beau Webster as he trudges back to his bowling mark.
Rishabh Pant sprinkles salt into Australia’s wounds by hitting the next ball for an emphatic six down the ground. After all the uncharacteristic prodding, nudging and putting his body on the line – he says enough is enough and decides to waltz down and bash the length delivery straight back over the bowler’s head.
Very unlike of him, Rishabh Pant is practicing patience at the crease today and has taken a couple of jarring body blows in the process. In fact, he was donked flush on the helmet grille by Mitchell Starc as he suffered a brainfreeze in response to a bouncer.
Cummins’ away-angler skids through and Pant opts to leave, albeit belatedly. The keeper did appeal as the batter withdrew late. Snicko spots an edge. Pant has escaped here. Carey did appeal but Australia didn’t consider reviewing it.
Was it actually the sound of wood though? The replays show daylight between the bat and ball when the Snicko threw up the murmur. Snicko’s contentious role in this series continues.
69 balls by Kohli is the longest in an innings his Test career he has batted without a boundary. The amount of application he showed is indeed praiseworthy but it was ultimately the same old story as Virat fell nicking to slip.
Boland had been kept probing outside off and gets the edge finally. Kohli did himself no favours as he jabbed at it a little. The ball flew off the edge and Webster dived to his left to take a splendid catch.
Kohli was batting out of the crease to handle the movement but failed to play that wicket delivery with soft hands. India in strife as they lose a set batter. Boland is once again gaining the upper hand over the Indian batters.
It’s lunchtime and the session belongs to Australia, especially with Gill’s wicket on the last ball before the break. In the morning, India left out Rohit Sharma and put forth an ‘opted-out’ smokescreen. They had a poor start as Starc and Boland sent back Rahul and Jaiswal, respectively, within the first eight overs.
Gill and Kohli, the latter employing a side-on stance and shunning the bat-tap, showed great restraint. While runs didn’t come at a fair clip, India seemed to be in control until Gill’s faux pas gave the honours to Australia.
We’d just mentioned about India having to be more focused at the stroke of an interval so as to not give away any further advantage to Australia and look what has transpired.
A wicket on the brink of Lunch. Shubman Gill has committed a schoolboy error. He blocked the previous delivery confidently and, out of the blue, decided to advance on the last ball of the over. Result? A fat outside edge and a regulation catch for Smith at slip. The length was on the shorter side; with Gill on the charge he was always gonna jab at the ball because of the momentum. He’s going to cop an earful in the Indian dressing room, which recently has received a lot of media attention.
Nathan Lyon, right-arm off break, comes into the attack. Gill is batting on 20(56) while Kohli has played 38 balls for his 11. Only a few overs left till Lunch so India ought to be razor-sharp. Australia would love another wicket here as it would tilt the scales appreciably in their favour.
Heart-in-the-mouth moment. Short and angling away outside off from over the wicket, Gill flayed the cut without really making an effort to line up with the ball and as a result, produced a thick top-edge that flew over the slip cordon. Not a convincing shot, but he won’t mind the end result.
In case you are wondering, the overhead conditions are still gloomy at the SCG.
The perfect start for Beau 👏#PinkTest | #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/xiTLPcxmtv
— Sydney Cricket Ground (@scg) January 3, 2025
Shubman Gill has managed to survive a big appeal for lbw. Australia lose a review.
The batter was walking at the delivery and got rapped on the pads. It seemed the ball hit him outside the line, but it proved to be going over the sticks as per the ball tracker.
Thankfully for Gill there was no edge because the man from cover point charged in and got hold of the ball before it bounced.
Boland wreaks havoc with his fourth ball, drawing an outside edge from the in-form Yashasvi Jaiswal. He finds his bearings right away – on a good length, starts outside leg, and seams away and open up Jaiswal – to snag the edge which is accepted by debutant Webster in the slips.
Boland almost deals India a double whammy. He finds Kohli’s outside edge next ball. Smith leaps across to his right at second slip and for a second it seemed like he had got his fingers underneath the ball and somehow managed to parry the ball over to Labuschagne at gully. Replays, however, suggest that the ball burst out of Smith’s fingers and hit the turf before the rebound was caught.
"100%. No denying it whatsoever."
Steve Smith weighs in on whether he got his hand underneath the ball in the biggest moment of the morning. #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/bqIy8iGIRm
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) January 3, 2025
As has been the case throughout the series, Rahul exhibited good judgement outside the off stump and paid respect to the new ball, but his stay was short-lived as he chipped a leg-stump half-volley to Sam Konstas at square leg. He falls for 4 off 14 balls.
Starc experienced a niggle in the Melbourne Test – he has been battling a back issue – but has clocked speeds north of 140kph so far in Sydney and isn’t showing signs of slowing down. Though there isn’t much swing at the speed merchants’ disposal, Starc and Cummins have extracted steep bounce on an archetypal SCG pitch.
Bumrah wins the toss and he elects to bat first on a grassy pitch under overcast conditions. Bold call. He says “our captain has opted to rest”. Rohit Sharma has had a dud of a tour with the bat and the domino effect has been evident in some of his captaincy calls.
Akash Deep has been ruled out of this game due to a bad back and has been replaced by the hit-the-deck seamer Prashidh Krishna.
The under-fire Rohit Sharma has handed over the captaincy reins to Jasprit Bumrah as India eye series parity at SCG⚖️
The news from the Australian camp is that Beau Webster is set to replace the struggling Mitchell Marsh🔄
Join us tomorrow for the latest cricketing updates!⚡ pic.twitter.com/0oLcs4cCRH
— Guerilla Cricket #GCFromHome (@guerillacricket) January 2, 2025
