Kholi and Rahane fight back with centuries for India

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Photo:NN/SAT

By Shobhit Nanda

Melbourne, 28 December : Virat Kholi and Ajankiya Rahane put together a record 262 run partnership for the fourth wicket at the MCG to help India fight back in response to Australia’s first innings total of 530 runs. At the end of play India were 8/462 runs, trailing by 68 runs with 2 wickets in hand.
Australia came back with 5 wickets in the final session after the crucial wicket of Rahane was taken by Lyon, given LBW by the umpire on 147 runs. This led to another collapse of the lower middle order and will likely give Australia a slender first innings lead which they can build upon when they bat on day 4 of the third test. Australia leads the 4 match series 2-0 and need to just draw this game to regain the Border-Gavaskar trophy which India currently has thanks to a 4-0 win in the last series at home.

There was tension between Mitchell Johnson and Kholi in the second session. A few words were exchanged between the two after Johnson threw the ball back in his follow through and hit Kholi who was scrambling back into his crease. This fired up Kholi who then tried to hit the fast bowler out of the attack but at the same time created chances for the Aussies to take his wicket. After the match Kholi told media that he told Johnson  to “try to hit the stumps next time and not my body” and that “if someone doesn’t respect me I’ve got no reason to respect them”, implying that he does not respect Johnson.

Rahane scored his first 100 against Australia, his third overall. Interestingly all three of his tons have been outside of India which shows that he is a special batsmen for the Indians. He combined with Kholi in the middle after the fall of Pujara and Vijay in the first session. His run rate was excellent throughout the innings and he overtook Kholi to get his hundred first even though Kholi had a 29 run advantage when Rahane had come out to bat.

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Kholi went on to make his first 150 plus score in test cricket and ended the day on 168 after getting caught behind in the final over of the day off Johnson. Earlier, he celebrated his 100 by giving a kiss with his bat to his girlfriend, Anushka Sharma, who was at the ground. He was also giving away kisses to Mitchell Johnson at one point in the game.

KL Rahul on his debut played an unmemorable shot for get caught out on 3. This was after he was given a life when the substitute fielder, Siddle, dropped him off the previous ball. There will be question marks on his selection at the expense of struggling Rohit Sharma who was dropped after failures in the first 2 tests of the series.

The batting conditions were excellent throughout the day and same is predicted for the next two days. All three results are still possible in this game and a lot will depend on when Australia declare their second innings. But first they must dismiss the final two Indian batsmen on Day 4.
– SAT News Service

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Neeraj Nanda

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