BGT | Head and Smith tons revoke WTC final nightmares but Bumrah fifer keeps India alive on Day 2

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

10
no photo

Australia made big strides towards posting a big first innings total on Sunday at the Gabba as Travis Head and Steve Smith's 241-run fourth wicket stand took the hosts to 401/7 at Stumps. Jasprit Bumrah set the tone early with three quick scalps and went on to complete a fifer despite the Oz tons.

Brief score: AUS 401/7 (Head 152, Smith 101; Bumrah 25-7-72-5) at Stumps on Day 2

Resuming overnight from 28/0, Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney failed to last even half an hour on Sunday morning as they nicked behind off Jasprit Bumrah for scores of 21 and 9 respectively. Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith dug in thereafter against relentless spells from the Indian spearhead and Akash Deep before capitalizing on a few looseners from Mohammed Siraj to tick off 37 gradual runs. However, the return of Bumrah for a second spell saw Marnus being lured for a loose drive outside off and Virat Kohli caught a simple catch at slip, to send the hosts into Lunch at 75/3.

The momentum cartwheeled in the second session as the Travis Head and Steve Smith combination returned to haunt Indian hearts with 159 wicketless runs in the second session. The former took his first 30 deliveries to assess conditions but simply dealt in boundaries thereafter while Smith was content to rattle along slowly at the other end. The introduction of Jadeja and Nitish Kumar Reddy into the attack only spurred Head along further and the South Australian batter brought up his third Test against India off just 115 deliveries at the stroke of Tea.

Post the break, the runs came even faster as the duo added a further 82 runs at quicker than run-a-ball to take their stand to 241, with Smith bringing up his 15th century against India across all formats in the process. It took a second new ball and the return of Bumrah into the attack to have Smith caught by a diving Rohit Sharma at slip and the right-arm quick completed his fifer by inflicting the same fate on Mitch Marsh. However, Alex Carey kept the momentum going with a rapid-fire 45 across both sides of Pat Cummins' 20-run cameo to make the final score read a resounding 401/7, including Carey and Starc as the incumbent batters.

Deep

Legend

Lone warrior

Back to basic

Carry job

Legend

Just Imagine

Unreal

Superb

Only one

Get updates! Follow us on

laught0
astonishment0
sadness0
heart0
like0
dislike0

Comments

Sign up or log in to your account to leave comments and reactions

0 Comments