AHMEDABAD, March 10: Usman Khawaja recorded his second-highest Test score as Australia dominated the second day of the fourth Test against India on Friday.
Khawaja’s 180 runs helped Australia reach 480 all out in its first innings after resuming the day on 255/4. At stumps, India was 36/0 in 10 overs — trailing Australia by 444 runs — with Rohit Sharma (17) and Shubman Gill (18) at the crease.
India leads the four-match series 2-1.
Khawaja faced 422 deliveries, hit 21 fours, and finished with the third highest individual score by an Australian on Indian soil. Dean Jones’ 210 in 1986 and Matthew Hayden’s 203 in 2001 are the two highest scores. Khawaja’s highest-ever Test score is 195 not out against South Africa earlier this year.
Cameron Green scored his first Test hundred as the visitors took control.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet, but I am very grateful to have scored these runs,” Green said. “(Khawaja) was very helpful and talked to me throughout the innings.”
Green scored 114 off 170 balls, hitting 18 fours. It was his highest individual score in Tests, surpassing 84 against India at Sydney in 2021.
Ravichandran Ashwin finished with 6/91 in 47.2 overs, his 32nd five-wicket haul in Tests.
Earlier in the morning, Khawaja and Green had dominated proceedings for a second wicketless session in this test, adding 92 runs.
The post-lunch session was another dominant one for Australia in helpful batting conditions. Starting from 347/4 at the break, Khawaja and Green added another 31 runs to their fifth-wicket stand.
Overall, the pair put on 208 runs.
Ashwin struck twice midway through the second session. Green was caught behind and then Alex Carey was out for a four-ball duck, trying to attack the spinner.
Ashwin trapped Mitchell Starc (6) lbw to leave Australia at 387/7.
Australia went to tea at 409/7. Khawaja fell immediately afterward, out lbw to Ravindra Jadeja (1/89).
Any Indian hopes for a quick revival thereafter were doused as Nathan Lyon (34) and Todd Murphy (41) added 70 runs for the ninth wicket, keeping India in the field for another 19.2 overs.
Ashwin brought an end to the innings with twin strikes in the space of five deliveries, dismissing both Lyon and Murphy. He now has the most five-wicket hauls (26) in Tests in India.
The off-spinner has 113 wickets in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the most for an Indian bowler, surpassing Anil Kumble’s 111. He is joint top with Lyon, who also has 113.
Wasn’t at my best in
Bangladesh: Ashwin
Little tweaks in technique after an underwhelming tour of Bangladesh has worked wonders for Ravichandran Ashwin, who will go to bed on Friday night “feeling a lot better” as his spells against the Australians had “more penetration”.
“You can go to bed feeling a lot better instead of having just three wickets in your kitty,” Ashwin said after the end of second day’s play in the series-deciding fourth Test.
“It does feel good as you end up with good bag of wickets, even if you dont bowl sometimes, you feel good about it. I will go to bed tonight a bit early and a bit happier.” Ashwin has taken 24 wickets in the series so far with an innings left to bowl, but his 6/91 in 47.2 overs will certainly go down as one of his best efforts on a flat deck, after having got a chance to ply his trade on some of the spinner-friendly conditions.
“We expected the wicket to play well but not as slow as it did. So let’s hope that it gets tougher to bat on as the game goes on,” he said after claiming his 32nd five-wicket haul.
Game of second innings
Ashwin believes that the pitch is still pretty good for batting and it will be a game of one innings – the second – when batting might become slightly difficult.
“This is a game of second innings but we have to bat well and probably see some of our top order batters get a big score and have some chance and come out batting day after tomorrow, I will be cheering batters from bottom of my heart after a day like this as a bowler.”
Can the Indian openers score at more than three runs, or may be 3.5 an over, on day three? “All I know is that there is enough rolling and enough cut grass that has gone underneath that surface. I play a lot of cricket in Chennai, where there is a lot of cut grass and rolling, and I expect the pitch to be nice and hard and probably break as the game goes on which I hope is not for next five sessions.” (Agencies)
