Melbourne: Steve Smith made a brilliant 140 while Jasprit Bumrah finished with 4-99 as India bowled out Australia for 474 in their first innings on day two of the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) Friday.
India had aimed to wrap up the Australia innings quickly, but Smith’s 34th Test hundred – a fluent knock laced with 13 fours and three sixes – along with him getting valuable support from Pat Cummins (49) and Mitchell Starc (15) in stitching stands of 112 and 44 respectively helped the hosts’ made the visitors’ bowling line-up listless.
It was also Smith’s fifth ton at the MCG, and second three-figure score coming in as many matches against India in this series.
Post lunch, India had some relief as Mitchell Starc was castled by Ravindra Jadeja, who got the ball to straighten in and rattle his off-stump.
Smith was next to fall in a bizarre fashion, as he danced down the pitch to hoick off Akash Deep, but got a bottom edge and the ball rolled onto the stumps to dislodge the off-stump bail. After Scott Boland successfully used the review twice to overturn lbw decisions, Jadeja finally closed Australia’s innings in 122.4 overs by trapping Nathan Lyon plumb lbw.
Australia’s bowlers will now get a chance to have a crack on a pitch that is still offering a little bit of assistance to seamers and spinners, with India’s batters under immense pressure to step up after the bowlers were made to toil hard in a performance where Bumrah shined yet again.
With Rohit Sharma back to opening the batting and KL Rahul, India’s leading run-getter on the tour being, pushed down the order, India have a mountain to climb if they are to save the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.
Brief Scores: Australia 474 in 122.4 overs (Steve Smith 140, Marnus Labuschagne 72; Jasprit Bumrah 4-99, Ravindra Jadeja 3-78) against India
