India seem to be in love with staging fightbacks. After a mediocre 1st day, India started well today and had a great first session restricting the hosts for 369. But the second session belonged to the Aussies as they sent back both openers Shubman Gill (7) and Rohit Sharma (44) forcing India to 62-2 at the end of the day. The visitors still trail Australia by 307 runs with the dependable Cheteshwar Pujara (8*) and Ajinkya Rahane (2*) once again entrusted with the job of rescuing India.

The 2nd day of the fourth Test at Gabba, Brisbane, was cut short by rains and there was no play following Tea. However, there were plenty of actions in the first two and we must say the day’s honours were shared by both teams.

Starting on an overnight total of 274-5, Australia’s slump started with Skipper Tim Paine’s dismissal. Immediately after scoring his 50, he nicked one to Rohit Sharma off Shardul Thakur at the second slip. The Aussies lost two more quick wickets following this and the scoreboard quickly went from 310-5 to 315-8.

Debutant Washington Sundar foxed Cameron Green with a length ball and Thakur was the one to trap Pat Cummins (2) off a fuller length delivery that went for a review but the on-field decision of ‘OUT’ was eventually retained.

Nathan Lyon (24) and Mitchell Starc (20*) put up some resistance, stitching a quick 40-ball 39-run partnership before Sundar castled Lyon with a fuller one that pitched at middle-and-leg. T Natarajan was the one to remove the last-man standing Josh Hazlewood for 11. The debutants –Natarajan and Sundar – as well as Thakur were quite impressive with three wickets apiece, especially on a pitch that didn’t provide a lot of seam movement.

Day 3 will officially start half an hour before the scheduled time of play to compensate for the loss of play today due to rain.