Australia v India: second Test, day two – live!

A gripping day, with a quality contest that has moved one way and then the other, without finally making a categorical shift. It’s been stubborn cricket, and while it hasn’t moved fast on the scoreboard, you couldn’t call it sedate. It’s been a quality fight back and forth all day.

Australia ground their first innings out to 326 during the first session, but after Paine and Cummins batted over an hour, India would have been relatively pleased to wrap things up where they were. It was a decent score without being huge. But things looked very grim for the visitors when both openers were gone with 8 runs on the board.

That was the situation that Pujara and Kohli had to salvage. They did so with a partnership worth 84, but the relatively slow pace meant that India was still a long way short of safety when Pujara nicked down the leg side. Rahane came out and counterattacked at first, then settled down into the next partnership. Kohli adjusted his pace throughout, attacking when opportunities came, defending when the bowling demanded it.

That partnership now stands at 90, and India will be feeling energised with the Australians a little deflated. But moving themselves out of the emotion of the moment, Australia still have a huge advantage in the match. The lead remains at 154, and with India’s fragile lower order and questionable middle, one more wicket could easily see the rest slide away.

So we’ll resume tomorrow with that key partnership resuming, with Kohli eyeing yet another century, and Rahane to show what he can do after a vital innings of 70 in Adelaide.

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Australia, meanwhile, will hope their fast bowlers can rest up enough to provide the sort of quality we saw today, attacking the channel and beating the edge time and again, and making runs very difficult to come by.

We’ll be back with you first thing before tomorrow’s play.

69th over: India 172-3 (Kohli 82, Rahane 51) Cummins draws the edge, but can’t do anything more with it. It bounces short of Marsh at slip, Kohli going softly at the ball again. And again, when Cummins attacks the stumps, Kohli flicks him square for three, and like Marty McFly on the way back home, moves into the 80s.

Rahane defends the last three balls, and that is stumps.

68th over: India 169-3 (Kohli 79, Rahane 51) Lyon wheels away again, looking like a grumpy old sailor in the corner of the bar. He doesn’t see the point of going on, but nor does he see an alternative.

67th over: India 167-3 (Kohli 78, Rahane 50) Cummins just doesn’t give up. Kohli is determined to get through to stumps with only a few minutes left. He pats a couple on the head, no fuss. Then the fifth ball of the over Cummins goes past the edge again, moving it away a touch, drawing Kohli into the defensive shot with a tempting line, landing just the right length to make that defence perilous. Then Kohli responds, the last ball attacking the pads but instead sent through fine leg for four.

This isn’t cricket, but it’s relevant to all facets of the media. An excellent read, recommended.

66th over: India 163-3 (Kohli 74, Rahane 50) After Kohli gives Rahane the strike with a pull, the latter batsman drives Lyon into the cover gap to come through for a leisurely single, and raise his half century. There’s a yelp for leg before later in the over, but probably an edge on that one. Then Rahane leaves a ball passing his off stump.

65th over: India 160-3 (Kohli 72, Rahane 49) Perfecto from Ajinkya Rahane. You can’t see it, but I’m doing Italian fingers at the keyboard right now. Hazlewood comes back on for a late spell, he’s probably sore and tired, and he doesn’t quite get it right. Rahane is happy to take full toll. First, a perfect straight drive. Crisp, fluent, through the ball and sending it with compass precision down the ground. Then something more wild, a square cut of some ferocity that’s again lifted deliberately rather than aimed into the ground. Rahane roates strike, then Hazlewood overpitches again and Kohli drives through cover. It’s late, Hazlewood is tired, but Kohli isn’t – he calls early and hustles back for a third. A dozen from the over, much like when Kohli took three boundaries from Hazlewood much earlier in the day.

64th over: India 148-3 (Kohli 69, Rahane 40) Cummins hasn’t got his bouncers right today, they’ve almost all been too high. His length ball has been the bigger threat. “This isn’t Kohli with the sabre, this is Kohli with the shield,” says Bhogle.

Australia Twitter, meanwhile, is tipping amusingly in one direction, especially when the home team is still 178 in front.

63rd over: India 147-3 (Kohli 69, Rahane 39) Lyon to Rahane, just a single from the last ball.

62nd over: India 146-3 (Kohli 69, Rahane 38) Spotless. Cummins overpitches by… maybe six inches? A mere fraction. Kohli takes fractions and makes them whole. Or finds holes. Cover, point, mid-off are there. “He finds the gap as a surgeon might,” says Harsha Bhogle on ABC radio. The cover drive for four takes Kohli to 69. Nice. His next attempt goes straight to the field. The ball in between is a bouncer that he ducks and grins at. The duels continue.

Bhogle is in good form. “We have a forecast for a storm tomorrow, but the rainfall is between 0 and 1 millimetre. How can you have a storm with rain of 0 to 1 millimetre? Unless it’s in a teacup.”

61st over: India 142-3 (Kohli 65, Rahane 38) You could look at the scorecard for today and think it was boring, but it has been anything but. As long as you like cricket, let’s have that caveat. Lyon is tiring, he’s bowled 19 overs in the innings. Luckily it’s not hot today.

60th over: India 141-3 (Kohli 64, Rahane 38) Right. Cummins is back on. This is the contest, for mine. The bowler that Kohli is most vulnerable against. But Kohli doesn’t attack three balls in the channel, then he escapes examination by glancing one when Cummins comes straight.

Does anyone have some advice for Robert Wilson? “Looks like Perth ain’t Perth anymore and I’m slightly sad. In other news, I’m thinking of writing something jubilantly celebratory about Viv Richards. I am big with it, gravid and ready. What form would you advise? Epic poem? Philosophical treatise? I confess that, at the moment, I’m leaning towards Viv: The Musical.”

59th over: India 140-3 (Kohli 63, Rahane 38) Kohli eases Lyon to long on for one. The batsmen happy to take their time, as the light dims. They still trail by 186.

“Regarding your 47th over challenge, how about a posthumous pardon?” asks Brian Withington with some creative accounting. “In passing, is Kohli really of this species?”

It’s a strange one: he’s a robot, but the secret ingredient is love?

58th over: India 139-3 (Kohli 62, Rahane 38) The partnership swells to 57. Rahane pings a perfect cover drive away from Starc, while Kohli is targeting the same region even with his defensive strokes, just leaning on decent balls to find a run.

57th over: India 133-3 (Kohli 61, Rahane 33) Rahane plays a lovely back cut but it’s saved at backward point. He goes more prosaically to long on to find a run. “With regards to a player stat that can come and be taken away, what about a bowler taking a wicket that’s found to be off a no-ball?” asks Teresa Batten on email. I think that gets corrected so quickly that it doesn’t have time to be added to a player’s record. Whereas if you go to Kohli’s stats page now, he’ll have 20 half-centuries. But if in theory he moved to a hundred tomorrow, that would drop back to 19.

56th over: India 132-3 (Kohli 61, Rahane 32) Kohli and Rahane are happy to ride the ebbs and flows of this innings. The Starc over produces a couple of singles, Rahane producing one of the most elegant leg glances you could hope to see.

55th over: India 130-3 (Kohli 60, Rahane 31) Lyon toils away, with Rahane on strike. Another maiden. Here’s Tony.

Interesting. But does a double-double get added to a player’s record during the game, or when it’s done?

54th over: India 130-3 (Kohli 60, Rahane 31) Starc is back. A maiden to Kohli. “The first ever Test broadcast on radio was in 1924-25 in Adelaide, and it was a timeless Test. It went for seven days. And one bloke did the entire Test,” says Jim Maxwell, then gives a theatrical pause. “You feel sorry for the caller, but maybe for the listeners as well.”

53rd over: India 130-3 (Kohli 60, Rahane 31) Lyon, a couple of singles. They’ve taken the over rate off the big screen at the ground. The sound of an entire stadium just giving up. We’ll be here another hour by my estimate. It’s getting dim with the overcast sky, and the Ring of Fire lights are on.

52nd over: India 128-3 (Kohli 59, Rahane 30) Honestly, this is an incredible contest. It swings one way and then back the other. One side gets incrementally ascendant, then the other. These bowlers have bowled so well, relentlessly, creating risk. Then as soon as they slip for a moment, Kohli takes advantage.

Hazlewood bowls a jaffa that beats his outside edge once more. Just moving away a touch. Then one cutting in, hitting Kohli hard on the inner thigh. That really hurt. So Hazlewood thinks now is the moment to tail one in at the stumps and knock Kohli over, but instead it meets a perfect on-drive for four.

51st over: India 124-3 (Kohli 55, Rahane 30) A single first ball. Lyon’s threat level has dropped to orange.

“While personally I am no big fan of Virat,” writes Amod, who obviously has no conception of risk on the internet, “that he is as tough as they come can be seen from the fact that he turned up for a State Game on the passing away of his dad before the funeral. It makes good reading for youngsters who emulate his rockstar attitude without the work ethic.”

50th over: India 123-3 (Kohli 54, Rahane 30) A bit of a scramble, as Rahane blunted Hazlewood into the gully and Kohli took off for a run. He was sent back and had to dive as Head charged in from point. Got back in time, but has given his arm a fair scrape with the dive, I think. Rahane camps back to thud Hazlewood’s short ball for four from the next ball.

49th over: India 119-3 (Kohli 54, Rahane 26) Lyon getting through an over for a couple of singles. Andrew James has a suggestion to answer my question – does this check out? Maybe on the disciplinary record there’s only one card recorded, but reporting always differentiates the two yellows as distinct from a straight red. I’m not au fait enough with deep football intricacy to answer this one.

48th over: India 117-3 (Kohli 53, Rahane 25) Hazlewood. Bish bosh boom. Hitting the channel but getting the ball to soar through to Paine. A maiden. The last ball takes the edge, leaping off the pitch and hitting the handle of the bat, it looks like, and it drops in front of slip. Must have taken some glove as well, as Rahane is asking for treatment on this thumb at the drinks break. The over also included a massive no-ball that wasn’t called.

Get the third umpire to check the front foot. Every ball. It isn’t hard.

Speaking of hard, if anyone thinks that Virat Kohli is overrated or not that good or not that tough, there’s this:

47th over: India 117-3 (Kohli 53, Rahane 25) Lyon moseys through another over. Half centuries are one of my favourite things, because they’re the only statistical category where an item can be added to your permanent record, then can be subtracted again by a subsequent occurrence. If anyone can think of another such category, I’m keen to hear it.

46th over: India 114-3 (Kohli 52, Rahane 23) Hazlewood attacks the body a couple of times, and hits Kohli when a ball shoots off the surface. Kohli is happy to defend as another maiden is added to the relevant column.

Spot on:

45th over: India 114-3 (Kohli 52, Rahane 23) Lyon has been swung around to the northern end of the ground after bowling from the south all day. It’s a calming over, just a Kohli single.

44th over: India 113-3 (Kohli 51, Rahane 23) Kohli wants to get in on that fun too. Cummins gives width, Kohli carves his own cut shot, and it also soars away over the cordon for four. That might have been a bit more top edge than open face, but it raises his half-century. He now has 20 in Test cricket, but he could yet turn this one into a 25th century. Dashes a single next ball. They’re batting like it’s an ODI at the moment, everything feels urgent.

43rd over: India 108-3 (Kohli 46, Rahane 23) Smart play from Kohli. He hits mid-off, then point, so at his third attempt he check-punches it between those spots, through cover. It looks like two runs, but Kohli has one of his preferred running partners now, so they belt back for three on the throw. Sharp. Then, style from Rahane, “a West Indian flourish!” shouts Jim Maxwell on ABC Grandstand, as Starc gives width and Rahane opens the face, whooshes his hands through the ball, and sends it soaring into the Swami Army down in the southern bays for six. This is so much fun.

42nd over: India 99-3 (Kohli 43, Rahane 17) Rahane has suddenly calmed down. Perhaps Cummins doesn’t make people do daft things. Rahane faces out a maiden. It shouldn’t have been one – he pushed square of the wicket and could have had a single, but Kohli bailed out, might have been unsighted as the ball went into the gully.

41st over: India 99-3 (Kohli 43, Rahane 17) What is happening with Rahane? “He just makes people do daft things,” mutters Adam Collins in the seat next to me, talking about Mitchell Starc. Rahane’s first ball of the over was indeed daft, as he walloped outside off stump and met fresh air. Australia set the field up to get him out from the hook shot. They’ve got a bat-pad eight or ten paces back, a fine leg, a deep square, and a forward square leg about halfway to the fence. Starc bowls short but not short enough. Rahane can shift across the line and pull from ribcage height, off the bottom edge but deliberately so I think, dragging it very fine. The fine leg is too square, and Rahane hits the rope. Then forces two runs through point, and works a single.

He’ll keep strike against Cummins. Not sure that’s a great idea, both for how erratically Rahane is going and for how much Kohli’s rhythm might be being disturbed by being kept off strike.

40th over: India 92-3 (Kohli 43, Rahane 10) Well, Rahane has come out like Rohit Sharma or Travis Head. Takes on the short ball from Cummins and uppercuts it over gully with a flourish! Four runs, three slips, a gully, and a partridge in a pear tree. That becomes two slips and two gullies after Rahane scores three though square leg and Kohli comes into strike. Rahane has 10 from 8 balls. Kohli strokes prettily to cover but straight to the man.

39th over: India 85-3 (Kohli 43, Rahane 3) Ajinkya Rahane to the crease. He needs to ensure this is a very substantial partnership, considering what comes next. Vihari is unproven, Pant is reckless, and the tail is just about four No11s in a row. India created this problem for themselves with their team selection, but Rahane now has to solve or at least circumvent it.

His first ball is also down leg, and Marsh at slip is very interested in the appeal, but Paine isn’t as much and Starc just shrugs at them. It came off the batsman’s hip. The next two come off the bat though, two short balls that meet two uncontrolled pull shots, but with everyone in the cordon there’s a lot of safe space on the leg side for Rahane to drop those shots into.

At last, the battle has tilted. But in such innocuous fashion. I spoke of quality fast bowling. Starc didn’t produce that, instead bowling down leg side, but Pujara gets a touch on it as he tries to glance. Simple take for Paine, and the batsman walked immediately.

38th over: India 82-2 (Pujara 24, Kohli 43) Five bonus runs for India, as Cummins bangs in the bouncer and it trampolines over Tim Paine and away to the boundary. Cummins is bowling with good pace, but Kohli rides that pace from the next ball, up on his toes and running the ball away behind point for two. But Cummins counters with his very next ball, a beauty that shapes away off the pitch and nips past the outside edge by a few millimetres. Then Cummins goes the other way, inside edge into pad and it lobs up to midwicket but lands safe. This is high quality fast bowling.

37th over: India 75-2 (Pujara 24, Kohli 41) Starc maiden to Pujara. Sorry, was there cricket happening? I got distracted watching this.

36th over: India 75-2 (Pujara 24, Kohli 41) There’s a review against Pujara. Cummins hit him on the back leg with a good ball that cut in, but it was too high, and the umpire’s decision is upheld. Australia lose one. Pujara glances a single. Keeps on trucking.

35th over: India 74-2 (Pujara 23, Kohli 41) Starc is working away on Kohli’s patience outside off, but Kohli leaves five balls out of six and defends the other.

Let me know if you can’t see the video clips I’m loading up from Channel Seven. Had this email yesterday from Kim Thonger about a message that a video “is not available in my location. But does that refer to my sitting room, Northamptonshire, England or the Northern Hemisphere in general? I’m prepared to travel upstairs or even later today to the nearby county boundary, but refuse to leave the country, no matter how good it was. These broadcasting chaps need to be more specific. End of rant.”

34th over: India 74-2 (Pujara 23, Kohli 41) A fair over there from Cummins against Kohli. Bowled the sucker ball wide that drew a big flash but missed the edge. Kohli then creams the straight drive but Cummins stops it in his follow-through, saving four. Then thunders one into the pad via the inside edge for Kohli to take an uncontrolled run.

Here’s that Hazlewood wicket from earlier.

33rd over: India 73-2 (Pujara 23, Kohli 40) Starc to resume pleasantries after the hot beverage interval. Kohli reaches wide second ball to steer through runs behind point. Pujara leaves, leaves, blocks, leaves.

A steady but intriguing session, as India’s blue-chip blue-cap partnership steadied after both openers were knocked over in spectacular style. Australia’s quicks were all over it early, then were gradually repelled as Pujara and Kohli gathered stones for their rampart. But it wasn’t all defence either: the best part was how Kohli approached every ball purely as itself. He didn’t “go after” Hazlewood, as some outlets have described it, he simply saw three over-pitched deliveries in an over and hit boundaries. When the bowling tightened up, so did his defence. But at every scoring chance, he made use of it.

Pujara continued his excellent work from both innings at Adelaide. But India remain well behind in the match, and with a very long tail, this pair needs to do most of the work to catch up. You and I will have one more session together after tea.

32nd over: India 70-2 (Pujara 23, Kohli 37) Lyon to continue from the northern end of the ground, and…

Oh, that is just rude. They just flashed up Lyon’s pitch map on the screen and he’s been landing everything within a square foot. Then he overpitches, ever so slightly, and Kohli plays a cover drive that you could put in the Louvre. Honestly, half of that joint is just full of dimly-lit pictures of sad consumptives by an oil lantern anyway. Kohli drops his weight low, into a half crouch, and flips the bat through the line of the ball with his wrists, his second-most signature shot, and sees the follow through come back up over his shoulder as he ends up down on one knee. Fair. I would propose marriage to that shot too.

He ticks one more single square, and that’s the last score before tea.

31st over: India 65-2 (Pujara 23, Kohli 32) “Time to play the waiting game. Ah, the waiting game sucks. Let’s play Hungry Hungry Hippos.”

Unless you’re Cheteshwar Pujara. He loves the waiting game. Harvests two runs by clipping Hazlewood square, blots out four balls, then harvests two more. Makes the bowler come to him, then takes what he wants a little at a time.

30th over: India 61-2 (Pujara 19, Kohli 32) Kohli again finds a single from Lyon early on the over, so the spinner is able to continue his examination of Pujara. The silly mid-off is in his eyeline, making Pujara second-guess his movement and his shots. Then the Australians open up cover, moving that man to backward square leg. There’s only a point and a mid-off on the off side, aside from the slip and the bat-pad. Pujara isn’t tempted to drive against the turn – instead he comes down and drives just straight of mid-on, and is able to dash a single as Starc tumbles across to his left.

29th over: India 59-2 (Pujara 18, Kohli 31) Hazlewood keeps chiselling. Pujara keeps being the impenetrable rock. The Australians have bowled 11 maiden overs out of 29.

Grif is on the email. “Up early this morning for work so just catching a few overs before I go. Shaping up to be another good contest in this Test I see, definitely advantage Australia at the moment though. When it’s pitch black and freezing outside its great to see cricket on the TV in the sunshine. Can’t wait for our season to start now, only a month to go until winter nets, and Lancs have signed well over the close season. Got a ticket for the Ashes and in the ballot for England v Ireland. 2019 – Cricket Mayhem.”

Certainly will be – I’m looking forward to joining everyone in the UK for the World Cup and the Ashes next year.

28th over: India 59-2 (Pujara 18, Kohli 31) Kohli nudges Lyon for a run, Pujara advances and whips three through midwicket. A bit uppish but in the gap. The fifty partnership comes up. It’s taken 22 overs. About 138 balls. Tough going.

27th over: India 55-2 (Pujara 15, Kohli 30) Australia’s bowlers heaping on the pressure. These two batsmen are the best placed to counter it with patience. Just a matter of who breaks first. Hazlewood pins Kohli for five balls until he’s able to squirt away a leg glance.

26th over: India 54-2 (Pujara 15, Kohli 29) Lyon drags one down leg – deliberate? Accidental? Pujara coming across misses the flick, nearly edges it, it wasn’t that far from leg stump either. Pujara kicks a couple away outside off, and the Australians are interested in the idea that he could glove one in that direction any minute. Maiden.

25th over: India 54-2 (Pujara 15, Kohli 29) Hazlewood draws Kohli’s edge, but with deliberately soft hands so that the ball soon goes to ground en route to slip. But Kohli goes harder at a wide ball and somehow manages to miss it. Luckily for him. It’s a maiden.

Amongst all the new commentators, the most low-key name is drawing praise for his analytical work.

24th over: India 54-2 (Pujara 15, Kohli 29) Nearly run out! Pujara comes down to Lyon, misses his attempted whip, but gets some pad on it to dodge a stumping. Then takes a split second to realise he needs to get back, because the ball has bounced to Handscomb in short on the off side. He throws it to Paine as Pujara sprawls back into his ground. I wonder how close that would have been if Handscomb had just knocked out the stumps? Pujara leaves the next while stretching forward with just his toe anchored in the crease, and sees the ball zip past his bat and his off stump.

23rd over: India 53-2 (Pujara 15, Kohli 28) Hazlewood is back. Three slips, gully, point looking for catches. Mid-on, mid-off, a man just in front of square leg. Fine leg back to save the glance or the hook. Big gaps at cover and midwicket. Kohli plays a check-drive into that midwicket gap, very little backlift or follow through, but more than enough to pick up three.

22nd over: India 50-2 (Pujara 15, Kohli 25) Lyon again. Kohli escapes quickly, flicking to leg to raise the fifty. Che Pu is going with the kick-away defence a lot. They bring in a silly mid-off for him to stand opposite the short leg, two helmeted sentinels either side of the wicket. Pujara comes down the pitch undaunted and drives, hard, past Lyon – but not past Lyon, who has dived into a one-handed save. Fine work that draws an ‘oooooohhh’ from the crowd. Pujara goes again but this time finds mid-on.