
SYDNEY, 3 January, 2025: Day-two of the Pink Test today ended with India at 141-6, with a slender lead of 145 runs against Australia, who were earlier all out for 181 runs in 51 overs. On day-one India were all out for 185 runs in 72.2 overs.
7 Cricket’s Ricky Ponting and Simon Katich later added: Katich: “What a knock from Rishabh Pant, 61 off just 33 balls. Pat Cummins sensed the moment he needed to the ball in his hands after drinks break, took two balls to get the job done. That could well be the most important wicket this series.”
Ponting said: “It is fair to say it was far from normal when Rishabh was out there, it goes to show what an amazing talent he is in this game. Fair bit talked about as well between Test matches about some dressing room stuff, that the coach might have come down a bit hard on their batsmen about not playing the moment in the right way in Melbourne. I reckon that should have flowed over into the way Rishabh approached his first innings as well. It’s a real challenge when you’ve got extreme talents like that – how to actually get the right messages across to them and not take too many of their natural instincts away like what we saw from him today.”
At stumps today Ravindra Jadeja at eight and Washington Sundar at six at crease, one has to wait for tomorrow to see how much they and the tailenders can add to India’s advantage. If the Indian lead is not considerable, the Baggy Greens could have the advantage. Could the match end on the third day remains to be seen.
So, if the match is a draw or Australia wins, they get the trophy. And, if Australia loses the Sydney match then India retains the trophy.
Scores (ANI) – India: 185 & 141/6 (Rishabh Pant 61, Yashasvi Jaiswal 22; Scott Boland 4/42) vs Australia: 181 (Beau Webster 57, Steven Smith 33; Prasidh Krishna 3/42)
TAILPIECE: Rohit Sharma, 37 who opted out of the Sydney Test insists he has not been dropped and his career is still on the track. He has played 67 Tests for India and his absence in the Pink Test continues to generate speculative stories that his retirement announcement is coming.