Australia spinner Nathan Lyon on Saturday said that he is looking forward to bowling to Rishabh Pant as the wicketkeeper-batsman always tries to smash him. Lyon, playing his 100th Test for Australia, has already dismissed Rohit Sharma in the first innings. The second day of the ongoing fourth Test between India and Australia failed to resume after the Tea break, due to rain. Play will resume on Day 3 and India’s score reads 62/2 and the visitors are still trailing the hosts by 307 runs. Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane are unbeaten on 8 and 2 respectively.
“The crowd’s been amazing, Rohit is a world-class player and tried to bowl him my best ball. It would’ve been nice to go out for dinner with everyone, including my parents but there are bubble restrictions. It was like a day 3 wicket yesterday, and there’s a nice crack outside off-stump so I’m trying to aim at that. Rishabh always tries to smash me so I’m looking forward to bowl to him, it’s always a great battle with him,” said Lyon during the rain-break.
“My natural line is Paine’s right glove, that’s about a foot outside off-stump, and there’s a nice crack on that line so hopefully I can get something out of that,” he added.
Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma lost their wickets in the second session on day two, and now Pujara and Rahane are tasked with ensuring that the visitors do not fall behind.
After bundling out Australia for 369, India got off to a bad start with the bat as the visitors lost the opening wicket of Shubman Gill (7) in the seventh over of the innings. Pujara then joined Rohit in the middle and the duo played cautiously against the Australian pace attack.
Pujara and Rohit had a 49-run stand, but as soon as India started to look comfortable, Nathan Lyon dismissed Rohit (44), reducing India to 60/2. Then, Pujara and Rahane ensured that the visitors did not lose more wickets before the tea interval.
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Earlier in the first session, Shardul Thakur and Washington Sundar took six wickets among themselves as India bundled out Australia for 369. Marnus Labuschagne top-scored for Australia with 108. The first session on day two saw 95 runs being scored from 28.2 overs.
On the first day of the fourth Test, Marnus Labuschagne had played a knock of 108 runs to give the hosts an edge in the match.
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