R Ashwin and Umesh Yadav led India’s fightback with the ball to keep India alive in the ongoing third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, in Indore. Ashwin and Umesh took 3 wickets each to force an Australian collapse from 186/4 to 197 all-out.
Having bowled India out for 109 on Day 1, Australia were 156/4 coming into Day 2. Then, their two overnight batsmen, Peter Handscomb and Cameron Green, were brilliant in their defense to survive the first hour against India and slowly ticked over the scorecard, adding 30 runs in the first hour without losing their wickets.
It seemed like these two will help Australia take a massive lead and bat India out of the game on the pitch that had proven to be extremely challenging for the Indian batters on the previous day. India knew they needed some quick wickets to keep Australia’s lead to under 120.
They found the source of this from their two senior bowlers, the champion off-spinner R Ashwin and the athletic, fast bowler Umesh Yadav.
India remain alive in the match
Soon after the first-hour drinks break, Ashwin dismissed Handscomb, caught brilliant by Shreyas Iyer at short leg. Then came in Umesh Yadav, who had only bowled 2 overs out of the first 71 overs from India.
Yadav struck immediately, dismissing Cameron Green lbw. Upon being reviewed by Green, India got a big lucky as the ball was only clipping the leg-stump. In his next over, Umesh castled Mitchell Starc, sending his off-stump for a ride.
Alex Carey was the next to go, trapped lbw by Ashwin. Umesh had another hit at the off-stump, of Todd Murphy before Ashwin cleaned up Nathan Lyon, completing India’s stunning comeback in with the ball. Australia managed to take a lead of 88 runs, which was still big considering the surface in Indore.
