PERTH, 23 November, 2024: On day 2 of the first Test with Australia India was 0/172 at stumps in 57 overs, with a partnership of 150 by Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul. They completed their 100 runs in 22.9 overs, Jaiswal scoring 50 and Rahul 41. Earlier, Australia were all out for 104 runs.
A crowd of 31, 807 at the Optus Stadium (Perth Stadium) watched the first match of the season for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, as India took the drivers seat at Perth.
Seven’s Greg Blewett answering to a question by Mitchell (“What have you made of the Australians’ body language? How do you rate the energy in the field at the moment, Blewy?”) on the Australian team’s body language said, “Well, I have been critical of it for a while. I thought the session in between lunch and tea…Yeah, I was critical of Australia. That hour leading into tea I thought they looked like they were going through the motions, it’s unacceptable really. It’s day two of an important series. Australia-India… But it’s been a freakish couple of days hasn’t it really? The first two days of the series, the carnage yesterday, 17 wickets and then Australia lost Alex Carey, the seventh ball of the day. Day two this morning. First ball from Bumrah caught behind. And then bit of resistance. Especially from Mitchell Starc. Got Australia to 104 and now India are 0/110.” (Ch 7 & Ch 7+)
ANI adds:
It was the first 150-plus opening stand by a visiting team in Australia since 159 posted by English duo Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook at the MCG back in 2010.
Notably, this was the first 150-plus opening partnership outside Ashes Tests since 191 stitched up by Sunil Gavaskar and Kris Srikkanth at the SCG back in 1986.
Jaiswal and Rahul took the crease in the second session after Australia folded on just 104 at the stroke of lunch. They kept their composure and batted through two consecutive sessions to put India in a dominant position.
The last time an Indian pair before Jaiswal and Rahul, who batted out two successive sessions in a SENA ((South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia) Test was the duo of Pujara and Kohli at the MCG in 2018.
The 172-run partnership was India’s highest opening stand in Tests in Australia since the 2004 SCG Test, where Virender Sehwag and Aakash Chopra displayed their grit to put on 123.
With exceptional footwork and strokeplay from the duo, Rahul stayed unbeaten with a score of 62(153) while Jaiswal slammed an unbeaten 90(193), which has put India in possession of a commanding 218-run lead.
Speaking exclusively on Star Sports, Gavaskar called Yashasvi “special” following his performance during India’s second inning against Australia in Perth.
“This boy’s is special, He really is special. Looking at where he’s come from and the way he’s been batting, the way he’s been handling fame, it’s not easy sometimes to handle fame. Against England, he scored more than 700 runs in five test matches, two double-hundreds earlier in the year. And he looks so hungry for runs, which is what you want as a batter.
A lot of us were told, get a hundred. I think he says, I want to get a 150 or 200. He’s hungry for runs, and that’s exactly what Indian cricket needs,” Gavaskar was quoted in a release from Star Sports as saying.
Speaking to the media after the end of the second day’s play, Australian coach McDonald said that the wicket in Perth changed considerably on the second day.
“I think the wicket has changed considerably. If you look at the seam and swing, it was down comparative to yesterday (when) it was difficult work. I thought (India openers) KL (Rahul) and (Yashasvi) Jaiswal played extremely well also. But I think the conditions have changed,” McDonald was quoted by cricket.com.au as saying.
He added that the pitch in Perth looked drier on Saturday. He added his side was surprised since there wasn’t as much seam movement or swing.
“The surface looked considerably drier today, and it dried out fairly quickly. We thought there may have been a little bit more there so if you want to say it, we were a little bit surprised there wasn’t as much seam movement or swing,” he added.
Australia team: Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (WK), Pat Cummins (C), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.
India team: KL Rahul, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (WK), Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Reddy, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, Jasprit Bumrah (C), Mohammed Siraj.
