India’s top four batters delivered an underwhelming performance on Day 2 of World Test Championship (WTC) final at the Kennington Oval, London. India lost four wickets for 71 runs as each of Australia's four pacers took one wicket each in sunny conditions which looked ideal for batting.
Despite a poor display with the bat, skipper Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli combined to achieve a feat that hasn’t been achieved in the 146-year-old history of Test cricket. This is the first time all top four batters have been dismissed for scores between 10-15 in an innings of a Test match. Rohit scored 15 runs, Gill scored 13 runs whereas Pujara and Kohli scored 14 runs each.
The first to fall was Rohit. He had hit two boundaries before and looked in good touch. Pat Cummins’ last ball of sixth over was angled into the wicket. Rohit missed the line and played across. The ball hit Rohit’s pads and he was adjudged lbw. Rohit did not review the decision as well after a conversation with Gill.
Gill was the second wicket to fall. He had hit two boundaries as well but was left bamboozled by Scott Boland who replaced an injured Josh Hazlewood in the side. Boland angled the ball into the stumps and Gill felt that it would go into wicketkeeper’s gloves. The ball crashed into the stumps as in-form Gill departed.
Pujara had an excellent County stint with Sussex as their captain. Pujara started off well but he made the same mistake as Gill. He left the ball alone but Cameron Green had angled it in. The ball hit the stumps as India’s top-order collapsed for just 50 runs.
Kohli showed application and did not look to hit the ball away from his body. It was the pitch’s extra bounce that got the better of him. Mitchell Starc banged it in short and Kohli could not take his hands away from the ball as it hit his gloves and landed in slip fielder Steve Smith’s hands.
At the end of Day 2, India had 151/5 on the board with a trail of 318 runs. Ravindra Jadeja stood out of the lot with a 48-run knock on a disappointing day for Indian batters.
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