IND vs AUS: India beat Australia by 6-wicket to win 2nd Test
New Delhi, February 19: After bowlers skittled out the visitors for 113, Rohit Sharma, Srikar Bharat, and Cheteshwar Pujara held their ground to help India defeat Australia by six wickets in the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on Sunday at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.
India won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by a 2-0 score in the four-match series. Pujara (31*) and Bharat (23*) both played until the end to help their team win. Ravindra Jadeja ripped through Australia for India, going 7 for 42.
India struggled at times to chase down 115, but the score was never particularly dangerous thanks to Pujara's unbeaten 31, which carried the hosts to victory.
Resuming their innings at 14/1, India skipper Rohit Sharma slammed Australian bowlers all over the ground, scoring 12 runs off Nathan Lyon's over.
However, Rohit's brilliant batting performance came to an end when he was run out after scoring 31 runs off 20 deliveries.
Virat Kohli then joined Cheteshwar Pujara at the crease to bat. As Pujara continued to pile singles at regular intervals, Kohli became the fastest batter in history to reach 25,000 international runs.
The former India captain kept slamming boundaries in order to relieve some of the pressure on the Indian team.
In the 16th over of the innings, Nathan Lyon delivered a short ball, but Virat Kohli beautifully played it towards the backward square leg fence for an excellent four.
Todd Murphy then gave his team a big break when he struck out dangerous batter Kohli for 20 runs.
Right-handed batter Shreyas Iyer then came out to bat and smashed two big shots before being bowled by Lyon for 12 off 10. Iyer's dismissal brought right-handed batter Srikar Bharat to the crease.
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Bharat changed gears as he continued to pile on runs by slamming Australian bowlers for boundaries. India needed only 10 runs to win after 25 overs.
In his 100th Test, Pujara smashed an excellent four off Murphy's delivery to help India win the second Test by six wickets against Australia.
Earlier, Australia were skittled out for 113 in their second innings of the ongoing second test at Delhi's Ferozshah Kotla on Sunday, setting the hosts a target of 115 runs, thanks to a scintillating performance by spin twins Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, including a seven-for by the latter.
At the break, India's score was 14/1, with skipper Rohit Sharma (12*) and Cheteshwar Pujara (1*) batting.
Australia's innings resumed at 61/1, with Travis Head 39* and Marnus Labuschagne 16* looking to extend the visitors' lead.
Early in the session, Ashwin struck for the hosts, dismissing a dangerous Head for 43 off 46 balls and reducing Australia to 65/2. The innings was then taken forward by the duo of Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, who added 20 more runs before Ashwin sent Smith back for just 9. In 19 overs, Australia was 85/3.
Following that, Jadeja-Ashwin ripped through the rest of Australia's batting order, with the ball staying low and shooting off the surface. The Aussies were eventually dismissed for 113 runs in 31.1 overs. Only Head and Labuschagne made it into the double digits.
Jadeja took the lion's share of the Australian wickets, finishing with a career-best Test figure of 7/42 in 12.1 overs. In 16 overs, Ashwin took 3/59.
Chasing 115, India lost KL Rahul for 1 run, extending his red-ball drought. Wicketkeeper Alex Carey caught Nathan Lyon behind. The Indian score in 1.1 overs was 6/1.
Rohit and Pujara then led India to lunch without further incident.
Australia 263 and 113 (Travis Head 43, Marnus Labuschagne 35, Ravindra Jadeja 7/42) defeated India 262 and 118/4 (Rohit Sharma 31, Cheteshwar Pujara 31*, Nathan Lyon 2/49).
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- ANI
