The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

[VIDEO] Australia vs India highlights: Day 2 cricket live scores, blog

17th December, 2014
Australia XI:
Smith, Haddin, Starc, Johnson, Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Rogers, Hazlewood, Warner, Watson, Shaun Marsh

India XI
Aaron, Rohit, Dhawan, Ashwin, Kohli, Umesh, Pujara, Rahane, Dhoni, Ishant, Vijay

Time: 10:30am (AEDT)
Venue: The Gabba
TV: Live, Channel Nine
Poor selections and captaincy cost Australia at the World T20. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Roar Guru
17th December, 2014
522
14509 Reads

Murali Vijay hit a chancy but brilliant 144 as India were aided by under-catching and Australian injury issues going into the second day of the second Test at the Gabba. You ​can ​follow the live blog of the second day’s play of the second Test from the Gabba in Brisbane starting ​11.00am (AEDT).​

A hot and humid first day’s weather was often compared with the conditions often found in a city like Chennai and India took full advantage of the resulting difficulties for the fielding team.

AUSTRALIA VS INDIA: DAY FOUR LIVE SCORES

Australia bowled just 83 overs despite taking the extra half hour on the first day and that was a result of the many injury problems they suffered and the numerous drinks breaks that both teams took.

India started quickly in the first session, then slowed down as they lost a couple of wickets in the session before going on an overdrive yet again in the final to pile up 311 for four. And if some of the Australian bowlers fail to make it back to the field, it could get a lot worse for the home team.

First things first and as was expected, the Gabba track was no different from how it was expected to play. There was bounce and after the first session, the ball began to zip through from length as well.

It was this extra bounce that accounted for the first three Indian wickets to fall.

Shikhar Dhawan failed to keep down a cut to a short and wide delivery from Shaun Marsh and was easily taken behind.

Advertisement

Cheteshwar Pujara was surprised by a ball that reared up from just short of good length but what stunned him even more was the decision to give him out, caught behind, when the ball came off just the helmet.

And then the confident Virat Kohli fell attempting to cut one quite close to the body when he failed to gauge that bounce.

At that stage not only had India lost their best batsman from the previous game but also gone back into the shell. Ajinkya Rahane had joined Vijay and looked as comfortable as a cat on a hot tin roof and they looked vulnerable enough to go four down.

Fortunately for them, they saw off the session and went into the tea break three wickets lost. And they came back after the break all guns blazing.

It was almost like a switch had been turned on. Vijay began to take the Australian bowlers on and hit a flurry of boundaries while Rahane seemed to have overcome his initial edginess to give his more senior partner a lot more support.

Vijay brought up his sixth Test century with a couple of blows to the fence and never stopped peppering the fence till he fell for 144. Even that was a wicket thrown away as he attempted a hoick off Nathan Lyon but came cropper.

However, by then, he had already been given a couple of lives by Shaun Marsh – who dropped him at 35 in the slips and then again when he has passed a century at short-cover – on his way to 144. And he had become quite weary from batting all those overs in those conditions.

Advertisement

Rahane completed his half-century as well and in the company of his Mumbai teammate Rohit Sharma, took the side through to close with 311 on the board.

By this time, Australia had already lost Mitchell Marsh to a hamstring problem and Josh Hazlewood to what looked like a cramp. Even Mitchell Starc had problems with his fitness while Mitchell Johnson was seen clutching his side on occasions.

According to the latest, Marsh has been ruled out from bowling while physiotherapist Alex Kountouris was hopeful that Hazlewood and Starc will recover enough from a good night’s rest to be able to bowl. What the think-tank will also hope for is that they can get their radar right and the pace up to what’s needed to get India on the back-foot.

India will have taken the position they are in after winning the toss but now will hope to bat long into the second day to get themselves really ahead in the Test match. A score of 450 is the bare minimum they would want while Australia will hope they can perform a repeat of the first Test when the bottom half of the Indian innings fell away rather cheaply both times.

Rain is predicted for Thursday so we might be looking at a few delays on the second day of the Test match that should suit the Aussie bowlers.

Join me for ​the scond day of this second Test between Australia ​and India on Thursday here and you can follow the live score of this game from ​11.00am (AEDT) and post your comments ​in the section ​below.

close