Captain Steve Smith cracked his third successive century with a heroic 192 as Indian bowlers put up a poor show to allow Australia post a mammoth first innings total of 530 and gain control of the third cricket Test here on Saturday.
Resuming the day on 259 for five, Smith led from the front to notch up his seventh Test ton and put on a 110-run sixth wicket partnership with Brad Haddin (55) to demoralize the Indians on the second day. like in the previous matches, the Australian tailenders added valuable runs to expose the Indian bowling attack which has found it difficult to clean up the tail.
India responded well to Australia’s huge first innings total by reaching 108 for one at close on the second day with Murali Vijay (55) and Cheteshwar Pujara (25) at the crease. India is still trailing by 422 runs.
If Smith mixed the right dose of caution and aggression in his 305-ball stay, hitting 15 fours and 2 sixes in his career-best knock, then Haddin, his innings laced with 7 fours and a six, made sure that the hosts score at a quick rate in the morning session.
New-ball bowlers Ishant Sharma (0-104) and Umesh Yadav (3-130) made no impression in the first hour of play as the Australians made merry on a good Melbourne wicket much to the delight of the home crowd.
Mohammed Shami (4-138), who had been bleeding runs till now, finally got Haddin caught behind but India’s troubles were far from over as the ever-resilient Mitchell Johnson (28) also did his bit with the bat.
In the second session, Smith changed gears and found the perfect partner in Harris as the duo stitched together a 106-run eight-wicket partnership to double-up the scoring rate.
Harris, who notched up his third test fifty, was finally trapped lbw off Ashwin but Smith continued to smack the bowlers all around the park as the hosts managed a scoring-rate of over five throughout the day’s play.
Medium-pacer Harris took the only wicket of the Indian innings so far when he got Shikhar Dhawan (28) to induce an outside which was well taken by Smith at second slip.
The Murali-Pujara duo rebuilt the innings with an unbeaten 53-run stand but trailing the four-match series 0-2, India sure have a mountain to climb on the third day’s play in a must-win game.
Vijay and Dhawan (28 runs, 51 balls, 3 fours) opened the innings after an early tea-break given that the Australian innings had finished just close to the end of the second session.
Runs were not easy to come by even though Vijay got a quick start with two fours off Johnson (0-24) in the fifth over. Dhawan waited around a bit before he too opened up and struck two fours in the 14th over off Shane Watson (0-14). Those boundaries brought up the 50-run partnership for the opening wicket, the duo’s only second-such stand.
In the very next over though, Dhawan departed and Pujara then walked out to bat. Pujara though was lucky to be still batting at close of play as Brad Haddin dropped him in the 27th over off Hazlewood (0-19). He was batting on 12 at that time.
Before stumps, Vijay got to his 9th Test fifty in the 34th over, getting there off 93 balls and in the next over as India’s 100-mark came up.
Earlier, Australia hammered India in the first two sessions of the day with skipper Smith scoring a career-best 192 as the visitors let slip any pressure built on day one and completely surrendered to the batting display.
For India, Ashwin was the best bowler on display, bowling with control throughout the innings. Shami took the most wickets, but he gave away too many runs smacked for 23 fours, 13 more than any other bowler. Ishant and Yadav were also unimpressive on this day.
Post-lunch, Smith (128 not out) looked to get some quick runs with Harris. All their front-line bowlers conceded more than 100 runs, a fact cheered by much gusto by the MCG crowd. Smith meanwhile continued to motor along, getting to the 150-run mark for the second time in this series.
Harris was out lbw to Ashwin in the 136th over of the innings and thereafter Smith added a quick-fire 48 runs for the 9th wicket with Nathan lyon (11), who threw his bat around. Following up his scores of 162 not out at Adelaide and 133 at Brisbane, Smith brought up his ton in the 101st over of the innings then.
He got to the milestone off 191 balls, and in doing so, emulated Vijay Hazare, Jackie McGlew, Sunil Gavaskar and Alastair Cook as the ones to score hundreds in their first two Tests as captain.
Warner fails to take field after injury
David Warner failed to take field against India in the ongoing Boxing Day cricket Test after the Australian opener suffered a nasty blow on his right forearm at the nets. Warner, who injured his left thumb at the Gabba last week, was hit by a Peter Siddle delivery during a net session before play on day two.
Regret my act of dissent: Sunny
Almost three decades after the infamous walkout incident in the Melbourne cricket Test which generated huge controversy, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar on Saturday regretted his act of dissent and said that it was a big mistake on his part. In the 1981 series that had been dogged by some inconsistent umpiring, a Dennis lillee in-cutter caught Gavaskar plumb in front and umpire Rex Whitehead, standing in just his third Test, raised the finger. But Gavaskar, who thought that the ball had got his bat on the way to the pad, protested by standing his ground long enough. Gavaskar also slapped his pads with the bat, letting the umpire know about his anger. As Gavaskar reluctantly started to leave, lillee reportedly made one comment too many and the Indian snapped, returned to the crease and instructed fellow opener Chetan Chauhan to walk off the pitch with him. “I regret the decision. It was a big mistake on my part. “If the incident would have occurred in present times then I would have been fined,” he added.
‘Gave away too many runs’
Disappointed they might be after conceding too many runs to the Australians, but Indian off-spinner R Ashwin said the tourists will pile up their own share on Sunday in the ongoing third cricket Test as the wicket has become flat now.
India had pushed Australia on the backfoot yesterday by reducing them to 259 for five but let the advantage slip on Saturday and the hosts ended up with 530 on the board. In reply, the Indians were 108 for one when stumps were drawn on the second day.
Ashwin said it was disappointing to let go of the advantage but exuded confidence that his side’s batsmen will do the job on day three. “We wanted to get them out pretty early. That was the plan. Unfortunately Steve Smith batted very well,” said Ashwin.
“They got a bit too many runs for our liking. But if you look at the overall game, the score is pretty par for this pitch. The wicket seems slow and it is pretty flat. We’ll take 108/1 and we’ll like to pile on the runs tomorrow.”
Australia finished their first innings just ahead of tea with Smith scoring his third successive hundred of the series. The young skipper was last man out for 192 runs.
India were clueless: Smith
Skipper Steven Smith on Saturday said that India were clueless against Australia’s lower-order batsmen who helped the hosts post 530 runs in their first innings on the second day of the third cricket Test. It felt pretty good at the crease and things are working well for me. It is nice and I think the most pleasing thing about it is that we got 530 runs on the board.
The hosts started their day at 259/5 and Smith was involved in a 110-run stand for the 6th wicket with Haddin (55) and then a 106-run partnership with Ryan Harris (77). He also added 48 runs for the 9th wicket with Nathan lyon as the hapless Indian bowling looked on.
“Our guys have done terrific to be honest. They have come out and taken the bowlers on. Mitchell Johnson today looked good again and Ryan Harris came out and batted beautifully. I don’t think India had an answer for us. I’m glad that our tail can come out and do that and be really aggressive against the opposition,” he said.
“Brad batted really well. He bats best when he comes out and takes on the opposition. He did that today and he was positive from the start. “I started pretty slow yesterday. It was just about being patient and then bowlers kept coming back. They have got three quicks and a spinner and the longer we keep them out there, the more the scoring opportunity you have. That was our plan to keep them out there as long as possible,” Smith added.