Nagpur: As India finished the innings on 400, gaining a healthy lead of 223 runs, almost match-winning, what came to the fore was the body language of the two teams. While the Indians have looked confident, sure of their ability and the work that needs to be done in the game, Australian shoulders have been down.
During Day 2 of the Indian innings, there came a juncture when Australian looked to came back into the match with quick wickets of Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Suryakumar Yadav. A score of 168 at the loss of five wickets didn't bode well for the hosts despite extending the lead to 9 runs as a quick run-in by the Australian bowlers could have folded India under 200 runs.
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Rohit Sharma, who was already in sublime touch, however, stayed calm and went on to score one of the most hard-fought hundreds by him. With him, Ravindra Jadeja, who scored 70 runs eventually, played his part and kept India innings afloat. They had a vital partnership of 61 runs that recuperated India's innings.
Nevertheless, there was a time when a close call against Jadeja was turned down by the umpire Richard Illingworth. Todd Murphy, the sole bowler to threaten the Indian batting line-up, was bowling well. He had his ball struck Jadja's pads following which there was a loud appeal from the Australian team. The ground umpire, however, turned it down.
The Australians, meanwhile, weren't all convinced and went with the fourth umpire for a review, who eventually turned down the Australian review. Although, it was a close call and a good decision by the Australians to go for the review. The reason why Jadeja was adjudged not out was because of the long stride that he took, and despite the fact that it looked ominously close, the umpire shrugged it off since it's always an uncertainty in cases of long stride forward.
As soon as the decision was displayed on the big screen, the Australians had their palms on their heads, wore dejected look. But the Indian captain remained unperturbed all along and gave 'told you' look to Jadeja, signalling he always knew Jadeja was not out.
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— Anna 24GhanteChaukanna (@Anna24GhanteCh2) February 10, 2023
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About the match, Axar Patel hit a career-best 84 to stretch India's first innings lead to a massive 223 as they were bowled out for 400 at lunch on the third day of the opening Test against Australia here on Friday. The left-hander, who was overnight 52, looked calm and in control to give India a solid batting depth at No 9 in his career-best that came off 174 balls (10x4s, 1x6).
Pat Cummins (2/78) cleaned him up at the stroke of lunch. All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja made 70. Mohammed Shami also contributed with a 47-ball 37. Debutant Tod Murphy returned impressive figures of 47-12-124-7.
Brief Scores:
Australia 1st innings: 177 all out in 63.5 overs.
India 1st innings: 400 all out in 139.3 overs (Rohit Sharma 120, Axar Patel 84, Ravindra Jadeja 70; Todd Murphy 7/124).
