A 62-run lead with nine wickets in hand was enough an advantage for Australia to challenge India with a competitive target in the ongoing second Test match in Delhi. Forget challenging India in the fourth innings, Australian batters failed to even accept the challenge put on display by Indian spinners in the third innings.
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As a result, the visitors registered a batting collapse to get bundled out for 113 in 31.1 overs. It was way before the lunch break that India all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin put an end to the Australian innings by picking nine wickets for 48 runs.
Jadeja, 34, picked career-best bowling figures of 12.1-1-42-7 to outfox the Australian batters at the Arun Jaitley Stadium today. Jadeja, who was at his usual best with respect to disciplines lines and lengths, benefited from the batters batting in haste. Unnecessarily wanting to play aggressive shots, Australia batters would want to reconsider both their approach and execution whilst playing the sweeps and reverse sweeps.
Ashwin, meanwhile, picked three wickets of specialist batters to kick-start the wicket-taking process before Jadeja took centrestage. Not letting any score for other bowlers to pick a wicket, Jadeja and Ashwin picked all the 10 wickets between them on a Sunday morning.
Chasing a 115-run target, India lost vice-captain KL Rahul (1) before the lunch break to receive an early blow. 10th consecutive failure in this format for Rahul came on the back of some bad luck but it might be enough for him to be dropped from the Test squad for the last two Tests.
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With an enthralling and perhaps match-deciding session coming up, fans would be hoping for the likes of Sharma (12*) and batter Cheteshwar Pujara (1*) to steer the team to victory without any major hiccups.
