Hundreds from Head, Smith put Australia in pole position
Brisbane, Dec 15: Travis Head put an insipid Indian bowling attack to sword for his second successive hundred while veteran Steve Smith wore the opposition down with a statement century to put Australia in a favourable position on day two of the third Test here on Sunday.
Australia reached a commanding 405 for 7 at stumps courtesy, a 241-run stand between Head (152 off 160) and Smith (101 off 190) for the fourth wicket after the visitors put them in a spot of bother at 75 for three in the morning.
The Indian bowlers, who impressed in the first session, lost their way to allow Head and Co to dominate the proceedings.
Jasprit Bumrah (5/72), who came up with welcome wickets both in the morning and towards the end of play, was once again the stand out bowler for the visitors. It was his second five-wicket haul of the series and the overall tally stands at 17.
Leaving Bumrah’s brilliance aside, India’s on-field tactics left a lot to be desired as Head played yet another game changing knock.
Head’s hundred came after a match-winning 140 in Adelaide while it was a classical Test match knock for Smith, who reached three figures for the first time in 25 innings, silencing his detractors.
While reaching their personal milestones, Smith now is the international batter with joint most Test hundreds (10) against India alongside Joe Root followed by Sir Vivian Richards and Sir Garfield Sobers (8 each).
Head, since his century in WTC final at the Oval in 2023 has been India’s nemesis with another classic ton in ODI World Cup final and two more in the current series. No player in last one year has scored more runs against India across formats.
Poor tactical calls
The field placements in early part of Head’s innings were questionable with India having a deep point and deep square leg, allowing the explosive batter to pace his innings with singles and doubles earned through cuts and whips off legs.
The short balls were finally attempted when Head was well set and he duly put them away with disdain but Rohit Sharma not playing a third man for his ramp shot looked a bit odd. It was more of reactive captaincy from Rohit rather than being pro-active.His special effort included 18 boundaries. Even after tea, too many runs were conceded with Ravindra Jadeja (0/76 in 16 overs) and Nitish Reddy (1/65 in 13 overs) opening the bowling as Rohit Sharma chose to preserve his frontline pacers for the new ball.Smith’s hundred too was of high quality. He preferred to grind it out in the first half of his innings before gaining the confidence to go for his strokes. He changed his stance for the third time in as many Tests by reverting to his exaggerated shuffle across the stumps and that ended up paying rich dividends. The hands were moving well, which has always been integral to his game.
One bowler, who should consider himself unlucky is Akash Deep who repeatedly beat Smith’s outside edge without much success.
In the morning, Bumrah extended his dominance over the Australian openers before Reddy got into the act to leave the visitors at 104 for three at lunch. (PTI)