Rahane had each his arms up in the air as a show of apology, but skipper Kohli silently walked back hoping for his deputy to make amends with a daddy hundred. But it wasn’t to be as the burden of operating his skipper out all of a sudden turned him into a pale shadow of the batsman who was hooking and pulling with elan.
In the finish, his keep ended a small later as Starc caught him plumb in front for 42. It was strange to see Hanuma Vihari convince him to take a overview when the ball was aimed to go only 1 way – stumps. Vihari also managed just 16 ahead of he played beside the line of a straight delivery from Hazlewood and was trapped plumb in front.
Earlier, opting to bat initially, India got off to the worst probable start off as Starc cleaned up Shaw () off the second delivery of the match. Cheteshwar Pujara then joined Mayank Agarwal in the middle and the duo attempted to stitch a partnership for the guests as each batters saw off the early spells of Starc and Hazlewood.
However, with half-an-hour to go in the initially session, Pat Cummins supplied the second breakthrough as he bowled Agarwal (17), decreasing India to 32/2. Kohli then came to the crease and along with Pujara fearlessly faced the Australian quickly bowlers in circumstances conducive to pace bowling.
The second session saw some strokeplay from each the batsmen following weathering the storm in the opening session. But just when it looked like the duo would give India the upper hand and stroll away with the honours of winning the session, spinner Nathan Lyon spoiled the celebration.
Just following reaching the group total of one hundred, India lost Pujara. A thick edge off the pad located Marnus Labuschange. A overview confirmed the make contact with of bat and ball following which the on-field umpire overturned his choice and Pujara walked back to the pavilion. He scored 43 runs off 160 balls like two fours.
Brief Scores: India 233/6 (Kohli 74, Pujara 43 Starc 2/49) vs Australia