February 19, 2024
India retains the Border Gavaskar trophy after winning the second test in Delhi after Australia collapsed inside the first session on day 3.
Austalia was ahead in the game at the start of Day 3, leading with 62 runs and a lot of batting to come with nine wickets in hand. But Indian bowlers had another plan.
Australia starts their day with some positive batting by Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne. Indian’s lead spinner R Ashwin breaks the crucial partnership by getting dangerous Travis head on 43. But after the fall of steve smith to a bizarre sweep shot, Australian batting starts to panic. With the wicket of Marnus Labuchagne, flood gates opened, and Australia collapsed on 113 runs losing nine wickets for 51 runs. Ravindra Jadeja leads the wicket tally with seven-fer for the star all-rounder.
Tricky Chase of 114 Runs.
India looked like absolute favorites to win the test when they started their small but tricky chase of 114 runs. India started with a positive approach, but on the stroke of lunch, Indian vice captain KL Rahul got out in an unlucky fashion after he flicked the ball of Nathan Lyon bounced from the pads of the fielder at the short leg, straight into the hands of keeper Alex Carry.
India started the second session aggressively, with Indian captain Rohit Sharma took the charge and scored a quickfire 31 off 20 balls before the terrible misunderstanding with Pujara got him run out. Then Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli keep score-board ticking. Virat looked assured and stumped for the first time in his career off to Todd Murphy. Sheyras fell trying to take on Lyon over the mid-wicket reducing India to 88/04, but Cheteshwar Pujara, who was playing his 100th Test match, and Srikar Bharat ensured India home without further damage.
WTC Final At Stake
After winning the second test march of the series, India has retained the Border Gavaskar trophy for the fourth consecutive time. India is also on their path to cementing its spot in the world test championship finals in England. India needs to win at least one of their
remaining two matches in the series to fix their spot in ICC WTC final. Australia, on the other hand, who are leading the WTC points table with 66.67 PCT, are at risk of losing their spot in the final if they lose their remaining matches. Then their hopes depend on Sri Lanka’s loss against New Zealand in the upcoming series.
Australia have their backs to the wall; They came on this tour to achieve the dream of winning the Border-Gavaskar trophy on Indian soil for the first time ever. They will have a break of 10 Days to rethink about their strategy and approach to play on these turning tracks. Australia will face India in the third test on 1st March at Indore’s Holkar Stadium.
