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As the Border-Gavaskar Trophy saw another 15 wickets fall on a chaotic day two in Sydney , India have been thrown their biggest curveball yet this series. But so far, they’ve navigated it under considerable pressure. Watch every ball of Australia v India LIVE & ad-break free during play in 4K on Kayo | New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1.
Limited time offer. The injury to Jasprit Bumrah at the beginning of the second session looked likely to throw the visitors into delirium at the SCG, as a half-century from Beau Webster on Test debut loomed large on a surprisingly spicy SCG wicket. And in between a whirlwind Rishabh Pant 61-run cameo in India’s second innings, the match could not hang any more in the balance if it tried.
“You still don’t know who a clear favourite is. You’d think Australia, but there’s mystery over Jasprit Bumrah, the lead is (currently) 145,” former Australian spinner Kerry O’Keeffe told Fox Cricket at stumps. “If it stretches to 180 plus, they’re a punches chance of bowling Australia out, who may get nervous.
47,000 people turned up wanting theatre, they got theatre.” Amid all the on-field commotion, Steve Smith’s wait to reach an elusive five-figure milestone goes on, while his long-time rival Virat Kohli likely finished his last-ever Test series in Australia on a grim, grim note. Here are all the biggest Talking Points from Day 2 of the fifth Test in Sydney! ‘EARN YOUR STRIPES’: WEBSTER REWARDS SELECTORS’ FAITH Dropping Mitchell Marsh was a tough call, but it has proven the correct one given the excellence of debutant Beau Webster at the SCG.
Webster proved his worth as a Test cricketer on Saturday, combining with vice-captain Steve Smith for a 47-run partnership to rescue Australia after a horror start in the first innings before joining Ricky Ponting as the only Tasmanians to score a half-century on debut. The hosts were in strife at 4-39 when Webster walked to the crease, with the Sydney deck a seam-bowling paradise and the coveted Border-Gavaskar Trophy at risk of slipping from Australia’s grasp. No pressure, Slug.
However, the Tasmanian has a decade of experience on Hobart’s green wickets under his belt and demonstrated that he is arguably more equipped than anyone to handle a bowler-friendly deck. Webster’s half-century, which featured five boundaries and denied India a substantial first-innings lead, demonstrated his skill and expertise with the willow. He was the only player from either team to pass fifty, scoring more runs than Marsh managed in the three previous Tests combined, in the first innings, though Rishabh Pant blitzed to the milestone in a thrill-a-minute innings later on Saturday.
Earlier in the match, Webster produced 13 economical overs, sharing the bowling workload with Australia’s strike seamers, and held onto two catches in the slips cordon. “He’s served his apprenticeship,” former Australian captain Allan Border told Fox Cricket. “He’s been in Shield cricket for a long time .
.. he’s gradually gotten his numbers better each year, and now he’s in the Test team.
You’ve got to earn your stripes.” Webster could join a lengthy list of modern greats, including Michael Hussey and Scott Boland, who flourished in the Test arena after receiving their baggy green in their early thirties. While teenager Sam Konstas was chosen on potential and Nathan McSweeney was picked as a stopgap opener, Webster’s selection for the New Year’s Test comes off the back of sustained excellence in the Sheffield Shield .
The 31-year-old has averaged 57.1 with the bat at first-class level since March 2022, also taking 81 wickets at 31.7 during that period.
“It just shows, guys who have served their apprenticeship, it’s amazing how often they do well at the top level because they’ve done the hard yards,” Border said. “They get picked for a reason, because they’re in good form.” Former Indian coach Ravi Shastri was also full of praise, stating Webster looked capable of an extended run in Test cricket.
“How well has he played for a debutant? Just the composure and the temperament (he has shown), he has looked very solid,” he said. “(He was) under pressure on a spicy deck and he has shown that he has all the character in the world to play at this level. He has looked totally part of it.
It is a different kettle of fish when you are out on the SCG playing for your country.” Hats off to the national selectors. They’ve rewarded form, and Australia reaped the benefits on Saturday.
It’s a victory for Australian domestic cricket and the Sheffield Shield. “It’s a great story,” Australian coach Andrew McDonald told reporters at stumps. “The body of work he’s put in in Shield cricket to be rewarded with selection, and then to go out and perform the way that he has.
“(We’re) just incredibly happy for him. You get your cap, go out there, perform, you know you’re at the level, and it just shows you that Shield performances are a great connection to international level, which is good for our system as a whole.” KOHLI’S TEST CAREER IN AUSTRALIA ENDS WITH A WHIMPER Virat Kohli is one of the greatest cricketers to tour these shores.
A decade ago, the Indian superstar notched four hundreds during the 2014/15 Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign in Australia, finishing the tour with 692 runs at 86.50. Four years later, he led India towards a historic 2-1 Test series triumph, cracking a century in a losing cause at Perth Stadium.
The right-hander even celebrated his maiden Test century down under, a breakout performance at Adelaide Oval in 2012. Only one touring cricketer has managed more centuries in Australia than Kohli — England great Jack Hobbs. But despite all the wonderful things he has achieved over the years, Kohli has ended his Test career in Australia with a whimper with the bat, managing just 190 runs at 23.
75 after starting the series with an unbeaten century in Perth All eight of his dismissals were caught in the slips cordon after fending at a delivery he should have left alone, with Scott Boland proving his nemeses. As Indian broadcaster Harsha Bhogle noted, Kholi fell prey to “that great passage of treachery.” “He draws you into his fold.
He tempts you and he entices you and then he trips you,” he said. Despite the entire population of India begging him to shelve the cover drive, which has time and time again proven his Achilles heel, he could not resist flashing outside off stump. On day two of the New Year’s Test at the SCG, Kohli was dismissed by Boland after edging towards second slip for 6, caught by Steve Smith.
It was his fifth single-figure score of the tour. He only reached 20 twice in the series, albeit converting one of those starts into a century in what has been a forgettable tour with the blade for the 36-year-old. “It’s never easy to get Virat out,” McDonald told reporters at stumps.
“I’d give full credit to the bowlers and the execution of the plan. It’s one thing to have a plan, but then to be able to execute that the way that we have to Virat, to put him under immense pressure. “Clearly that relentless nature of, in particular, Scotty Boland in that match-up has been incredibly difficult for him.
“But he’s never an easy wicket.” Kohli deserved to end his Test career in Australia with a standing ovation, but instead he was showered with boos by the Sydney crowd as he walked out to bat on Saturday afternoon. Having become public enemy No.
1 following his shoulder barge on teenager Sam Konstas, for which he copped a 20 per cent of his match fee, Kohli cemented his status as a villain in the eyes of Australia’s cricket fans. INDIA’S FAST-BOWLING CARTEL STANDS TALL IN BUMRAH’S ABSENCE Amid the mysterious and critical injury cloud hovering over stand-in Indian captain Jasprit Bumrah on Day 2, his fellow fast bowlers stood up when it mattered the absolute most. Departing the SCG to receive scans on an undisclosed injury, Bumrah’s absence looked set to leave a significant hole on India’s attack for the remaining half of Australia’s first innings.
There is a world where his back spasms could have left India’s hopes of a win in Sydney dead in the water. “For me, the important period of play was when Bumrah went off. To see the Indian fast bowlers rise to the occasion, the support bowlers, I thought was very good,” former India head coach Ravi Shastri told Fox Cricket at stumps on Day 2.
His country has relied so heavily on him not just with the ball, but more broadly this series – sparking concerns over how well the likes of Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna and Nitish Kumar Reddy would stand up. But as history now tells us, the trio found a way to skittle Australia for 181. For the first time all series, Bumrah’s fellow bowlers took eight of the 10 wickets in an Australian innings, with the 31-year-old taking at least three wickets in every single innings this series before today.
Speaking to foxsports.com.au , Australian fast bowling great Brett Lee was extra complimentary of Reddy, who’s impact with the ball has been limited up until this week’s series finale.
“I was so happy for India that they had Nitish Reddy, who picked up two wickets, literally as Bumrah’s getting whisked away in the car to go get a scan done,” Lee said. “I think (India’s pace bowlers) can do it. It’s going to be tougher for them, because Bumrah has been the enforcer.
But sometimes, when you take away the main enforcer and the rest of the pack step up, that’s obviously when they can play their best cricket. “It can go two ways. They can either, get destroyed in the second innings, or they can do what they did in the first innings and step up to the plate, which I think they will on this wicket.
” Lee, who took 310 Test wickets for Australia, elaborated on the 21-year-old batting all-rounder’s output throughout the second day’s play on Fox Cricket. “He’s only taken three wickets the whole series up until these last two, and it’s taken his captain to walk off the field for Reddy to step up — but he’s on fire,” he stated. “He’s only medium pace, but he’s been accurate in this spell (and) bowled it in the right areas.
Even he’s got some bounce off the surface and seam movement. Indian journalist Harsha Bhogle added: “I think the idea was for Nitish Reddy to play a holding role, (but) he’s done much more than that.” How Bumrah’s injury will impact his ability to bowl in the second innings remains to be seen.
But series-long doubts over the output of his fellow pace bowlers are now no longer anywhere near as clouded. India will be contempt with any target they set beyond 200 tomorrow, given the demons in the SCG wicket that could lead to three consecutive team scores below that figure this match. And unpredictably, the trio of Siraj, Krishna and Reddy could define the series after their leader Bumrah had done it so frequently across the first four and a half Tests.
SCG PITCH A ‘LOTTERY’ IN 45-YEAR FIRST The SCG, which was once considered a spin-friendly deck, has transformed into a seam bowler’s dream this week with vicious bounce and sideways movement prevalent across the first two days of the New Year’s Test. With a healthy layer of grass and the famous Bulli soil coming to the fore, the Sydney wicket has created plenty of headaches for batters over the past 48 hours. Wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant was struck on the body several times during India’s first innings, including a blow to the arm that left a purple bruise, a head knock that required a concussion test and a comical hit to the grain.
Australian speedster Mitchell Starc generated plenty of bounce, with a delivery just short of a good length sailing over wicketkeeper Alex Carey’s head for four byes. The following day, Prasidh Krishna’s first ball reared up and struck Steve Smith on gloves, rattling the Australian vice-captain. The hosts were rolled for 181 in response to India’s 185.
The last time both teams were bowled out for less than 200 in the first innings of a Test match in Sydney was in 1980. In response, every Indian batter aside from Rishabh Pant struggled in the last session on Saturday. “The groundstaff have done an incredible job in terms of creating a wicket with something in it,” McDonald told reporters at stumps.
“Traditionally here it’s quite benign, and we’ve had a lot of draws ...
you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. “Has it favoured bowlers a little bit more than what we expected and potentially the groundstaff expected? There’s no doubt about that, but it’s made for interesting cricket.” Former Australian captain Border confessed he had never witnessed an SCG pitch behave in such a volatile fashion before, arguing the conditions were slightly too bowler-friendly.
“At the moment it’s doing heaps. It’s swinging as well as seaming,” Border said. “As a batsman, it’s a bit of a lottery.
.. I’m not a big fan of those sort of tracks.
I haven’t seen a pitch like this (in Sydney), where it’s probably just too bowler-friendly. “It feels like you’re never in (on this pitch). You can just get a jaffa .
.. hits the edge and you’re out, and you haven’t done anything too much wrong, played the line.
“It does make for entertaining cricket, I suppose ...
if the bowlers are in the ascendancy in Test cricket, it tends to be a better game. So far from what I’ve seen, it’s a bit too lively, just a fraction. It’s a fine line, it’s hard to get it exactly right.
” Speaking early on day two, Border predicted that India’s first-innings score of 185 could be about par on this surface - which later proved accurate. It was a point also made by Mark Waugh, who played plenty of cricket in Sydney, who said on Friday 200 could prove a good score. “185, as it turns out, could be quite good,” Border said.
JINX TO BLAME FOR DELAY IN SMITH’S 10,000 RUN MILESTONE? Amid the deflating feeling at the SCG immediately following Steve Smith’s departure shortly before lunch, the fingers were flying thick and fast laying blame for the dismissal. Smith fell just five runs shy of joining Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting and Allan Border as the Australians to pass the 10,000 run milestone in Test cricket when out to Prasidh Krishna. On his home ground on a glorious Saturday afternoon, it would have been a fitting stage to achieve the milestone.
As it stands, he will get a second chance at some stage in Sydney. The exit did prompt a discussion as to whether the champion had fallen victim to the commentator’s curse, with Border and former Aussie keeper Adam Gilchrist sheepish. The Aussie greats dashed from the Fox Cricket suite in the Bradman Stand to the ground after Smith had struck his fourth four for the innings in the hope of speaking to the great at lunch, Gilchrist said.
“We thought, just for a moment, that we were going to see Steve Smith join AB in the 10,000 run club. He fell agonisingly short,” Gilchrist said. “We were down there all rigged up and I was thinking about the groundbreaking question I was going to ask him and he snicked off.
” Border also expressed regret, stating that “I think we may have jinxed him.” But the pair were quick to absolve themselves of guilt, instead pointing the finger at former New South Wales all-rounder and Fox Cricket senior producer Brad McNamara, who is a member of the popular Six & Out band that has played a couple of gigs in Sydney this week. “Buzz McNamara, I think, he has to cop a fair bit of the blame,” Border said.
The exit of Smith did prompt a discussion about cricket superstitions, which seems fitting given the New South Welshman has a number, as he told foxsports.com.au last year.
The 35-year-old opted against eating duck the night before a game in the infancy of his career, but after accidentally consuming it during an Ashes series, he scored a double-century the following day. Smith still taps his left knee pad once, followed by his right, then touches his protective box and taps his bat on the ground, once in front of him and two times behind his feet while at the crease. “I make sure I do the same thing every time I go out to play and it just becomes my routine rather than a sort of superstition,” Smith said.
“I think when it comes to my batting, and it’s my turn to bat, people know to just sort of let me have my space (and) leave me alone, basically, and let me try to get into that bubble.” Border, for his part, opted to let his facial hair grow for an extended period while in the midst of a purple patch with the bat during his career. “I had a superstition about having my beard for a while there,” he said.
“I was very reluctant to shave it off because I was scoring some runs, so I didn’t shave for a long time when I should have.” The former Australian captain noted that he did not see a ball of the opening day of the Nottingham Test during an Ashes the tourists dominated back in 1989 due to superstition. The Aussies apparently had a rule about not moving seats during a partnership and with Border inside when Mark Taylor and Geoff Marsh went out to bat, he remained there.
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