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Ajinkya Rahane's return to the Test set-up for India on Day 2 of the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia at The Oval in London on Monday, June 8. Trailing by 381 runs after Australia score 469 in the first innings, Rahane was caught LBW off Pat Cummins' bowling but a stroke of luck (or another mistake) saved his wicket.
Till then, India had succumbed to the pressure of the Australian bowler. The pace attack of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland had dismissed four of their top players, and a lot was riding on the batting of Rahane, who was brought into the side after a top performance at the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 with Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
Pat Cummins strikes BUT not given!
Rahane looked in good form, scoring 12 runs off 15 balls but the bowlers finally caught up to him as well. Cummins had already caught skipper Rohit Sharma LBW in the sixth over and was looking in good touch... barring the multiple no balls that he gave away.
It was at one such moment that Rahane found himself when he was batting at 17 runs. In the 22nd over of the innings, Cummins caught Rahane LBW which was called out by the Umpires as well. However, Rahane immediately went for the review and once the third Umpire began his process, the replays were immediately met with cheers from the crowd.
Ajinkya Rahane saved
The replays showed that Cummins had over-stepped and the delivery was called no-ball. The replays also showed that the impact of the delivery would have been Umpire's call as the ball would have gone on to hit the stumps. Rahane would have been out had it been a legal delivery.
It was Cummins' fourth no ball of the innings, giving Rahane a lifeline to provide the spark that India's batters might need against the Australian batters, given that the top order collapsed badly, with India reeling on 71/4.
Team India's top-order collapse
Earlier, Rohit only managed 15 before he fell, but the much-appreciated Shubman literally threw away his wicket to Scott Boland. Boland's sharp delivery outside off-stump seamed in significantly after pitching and rattled Gill's stump. Gill was caught in a fix on whether to leave or hit the ball. However, he didn't tinker with the ball which stormed into the stumps to leave the onlookers stunned and in utter disbelief.
Virat Kohli (14 off 31) and Cheteshwar Pujara (14 off 25) also failed to get the move on, with their wickets taken by Cameron Green and Mitchell Starc respectively. As Day 2 came to a close, Ravindra Jadeja (48 off 51) gave India stability, but he also fell to Nathan Lyon's bowling.
At stumps, India were trailing by 318 runs, having scored. 151/5. Rahane was still batting on 29 off 71 balls, and at the other end was KS Bharat on 5 off 14.
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