India captain Rohit Sharma led from the front with his ninth Test century and masterfully anchored his team after they had been briefly frightened by Australia’s offies on the second day of the Nagpur Test.
Virat Kohli was trapped down the legside off the first ball after lunch by debutant Todd Murphy, who had previously taken two wickets in the opening session. Suryakumar Yadav did not stick around for very long after hitting a boundary with his second delivery in a Test match. India lost half of their team and trailed by 8 runs after he was bowled through the gate while attempting to drive Nathan Lyon.
When Rohit Sharma was close to scoring 100 runs, he used a chip over cover against Murphy to reach that milestone. It helped India quickly seize the lead and earned him his eighth tonne at home.
In order to help India slowly build a lead after the difficulties, Ravindra Jadeja provided Rohit with some helpful support. He was able to field a couple loose deliveries to the boundary and even survive a close LBW review against Murphy.
R Ashwin and Rohit, the overnight batsmen, scored some crucial runs early on for India earlier in the day. As their combination irritated Australia for the first half of the session, both were fortunate to grab boundaries off outside edges but also managed to strike a six each – Rohit pushing Cummins over deep square leg and Ashwin slog-sweeping Lyon over midwicket.
Before Australia retaliated, the pair had carried their relationship into the 1940s and were starting to settle down. Murphy succeeded in hitting Ashwin on the front pad by following a line as he came around the wicket. Australia felt confident in requesting a review even though the on-field call was still not in, and it paid off when Ashwin was LBW on strike number 23.
The next opponent for Australia was a proactive Cheteshwar Pujara, who was able to score a boundary right away. However, the strategy was his demise since he attempted to sweep a delivery from outside leg and presented a straightforward catch to short fine leg, giving Murphy his third wicket. The spinner had requested a review after hitting Rohit in the pad, but Australia ultimately lost on both counts—for a catch and for LBW.
But that was still the closest Rohit came to losing, otherwise playing flawlessly for over three periods and masterfully leading India to victory.
Brief Scores: India 226/5 (Rohit Sharma 118*; Todd Murphy 4-59) leads Australia’s 177 all out (Marnus Labuschagne 49; R Jadeja 5/47) by 49 runs.
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