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Kolkata Knight Riders

about 2 years ago

It was a day when a new ‘Wicket’pedia page was opened at Adelaide. With 15 wickets in falling in the three sessions, it left fans gasping at the sheer pace of events unfolding in the Day-Night Test. At the end of Day 2, India were 9/1 in their second innings with Prithvi Shaw (4) back in the hut and Jasprit Bumrah (0*) holding the fort as the night watchman alongside Mayank Agarwal (5*). India currently lead the hosts by 62 runs.

The first session of the day saw six wickets tumbling, four from the Indian innings and two from the Aussies. First to go today was R Ashwin (15), without adding a run to the overnight total of 233. A thick outside-edge of a full-length delivery from Pat Cummins did him in. Wriddhiman Saha (9) followed him soon while teasing a wide outside-the-off delivery from Mitch Starc.

The lower order couldn't contribute much, with Umesh Yadav (6) and Mohammed Shami (0) falling to Starc and Cummins respectively within a gap of five deliveries. Australia took only 25 balls to pick up all 4 wickets and bundle out India for 244.

At this moment, the momentum certainly looked in favour of the Aussies and many would have already dismissed India’s chances to make a comeback into the game. But the Indian pacers crawled their way back in with two major blows in the first session itself. Both openers – Matthew Wade (8) and Joe Burns (8) were trapped leg before by Bumrah, as India could sense a change of tide. Both wickets were reviewed by the Aussies but the decisions went in our favour.

Indians in the field saw some really good catches as well some terrible dropped chances.

Virat Kohli’s flying sorcery to send back debutant Cameron Green (11) was the highlight of the day.

On the other hand, missed chances kept sending rude jolts down India’s spine as they kept fighting to keep the Aussies within the limits. Marnus Labuschagne (47), got two lifelines, courtesy the dropped chances, before falling to Umesh Yadav.

By tea, Australia had already lost half their side (92/5) and India were looking to wrap it up to have a strong lead going into the second innings. The third session went in India’s favour all the way as the Aussie wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals and the hosts were eventually dismissed for 191. Ashwin weaved his magic yet again, leading the pack with 4-55.

Tim Paine's unbeaten knock of 73 off 99 was the highlight of the Australian batting, with most other batsmen struggling against a clinical bowling performance from India.