Team India's bowlers were tormented by Australia's Steve Smith and Travis Head on Day 1 of the World Test Championship Final (WTC) final at The Oval in London. However, Day 2 saw a much-better outing by the pacers, who got the all-important wickets of Head and Smith.
Mohammad Siraj got Travis Head after he smashed 163 runs in 174 balls before Shardul Thakur clean-bowled the dangerous Steve Smith for 121 off 268 balls as Australia went on to lose four wickets in the first session of Day 2.
Steve Smith's 31st Test ton
After Australia lost three wickets for 76 runs on Day 1, a strong 251-run partnership between Travis Head and Steve Smith helped Australia to 327 runs. As soon as Smith came to the ground on the second day, he went on to score his 31st Test century with two consecutive fours off Siraj's balls. In doing so, he became the only Australian player to score nine Test tons against India. Soon after, Head also completed 150 runs with 23 fours and one six to his name.
Siraj gets Travis Head
It was the short-ball plan of the team that finally paid comes off. Siraj's ball attacked Head's hip as he tried to shuffle across and whip it fine, but the ball brushed the gloves instead and went straight to the keeper as their partnership of 285 runs in 408 balls was broken.
Shardul Thakur gets Steve Smith
After Head fell Cameron Green (6) off Mohammed Shami's bowling. At the other end, Smith was starting to go strong by Shardul Thakur got him clean-bowled while trying to play an outswinger in the 99th over of the innings. Smith completely mistimed the balls, which then took an inner edge of the bat and went straight onto the wickets.
Australia all-out for 469
With a lot of criticism levelled against Rohit Sharma's decision to play four pacers in the WTC final, they took five of the seven wickets during the first session of the WTC final. While Siraj bagged three, Shardul and Shami got one each. Ravindra Jadeja got one wicket as well, take of Alex Carey.
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