Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Marnus Labuschagne for the fourth time in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 out of 5 innings as he once again went through the defenses of the Australia number 3, in the first innings of the 3rd Test in Indore.
Marnus Labuschagne and opener Usman Khawaja had been forming an ominous partnership of 96 (198) that threatened to take the game even far away from India before Ravindra Jadeja rattled Labuschagne’s stumps to keep the hosts alive after India had been bowled out for 109.
Labuschagne had already been very lucky to have been able to score 31 runs in 90 balls before Jadeja brought his downfall.
The left-arm spinner had castled Labuschagne for a duck, but that was revealed to be a no ball. Then R Ashwin had Labuschagne pinged on his front pad, and would have been out had India taken the review. Then, Labuschagne had also edged but the ball lobbed far from the slip after taking a deflection from wicket-keeper KS Bharat’s pads.
A charmed life of Labuschagne eventually came to an end when Ravindra Jadeja, correcting his length by drawing it slightly back after being a bit too full earlier, hit the length and the ball slid on with the angle and went into the sticks, beating Labuschagne who was on the back-foot, a decision he rued immediately as he had his head down for a few second after hearing the noise of the stumps being clattered.
Watch: Ravindra Jadeja bowled Labuschagne:
WATCH – @imjadeja sneaks one through Marnus Labuschagne's defence 👏 👏
Live – https://t.co/t0IGbs2qyj #INDvAUS @mastercardindia pic.twitter.com/H1bijSuLDJ
— BCCI (@BCCI) March 1, 2023
Matthew Kuhnemann’s 5-for downs India in Indore
Meanwhile, the Australian left-arm spinner, Matthew Kuhnemann, routed through India’s batting order, registering his maiden five-wicket haul in his second Test match. Kuhnemann registered figures of 5/16 in only 9 overs as India were bowled out for 109.
Nathan Lyon took a three-fer while Todd Murphy, though took only one wicket, it was of Virat Kohli, who was India’s top-scorer with 22.
In reply, Khawaja played a terrific hand of 60 runs with Labuschagne after Jadeja dismissed Travis Head early. Ravindra Jadeja picked dismissed both the set batters to keep India alive in the contest.
Teams:
Australia (Playing XI): Usman Khawaja, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith(c), Peter Handscomb, Cameron Green, Alex Carey(w), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Matthew Kuhnemann
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Srikar Bharat(w), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
