Brief score: AUS 401/7 (Head 152, Smith 101; Bumrah 25-7-72-5) at Stumps on Day 2
Resuming overnight from 28/0, Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney failed to last even half an hour on Sunday morning as they nicked behind off Jasprit Bumrah for scores of 21 and 9 respectively. Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith dug in thereafter against relentless spells from the Indian spearhead and Akash Deep before capitalizing on a few looseners from Mohammed Siraj to tick off 37 gradual runs. However, the return of Bumrah for a second spell saw Marnus being lured for a loose drive outside off and Virat Kohli caught a simple catch at slip, to send the hosts into Lunch at 75/3.
The momentum cartwheeled in the second session as the Travis Head and Steve Smith combination returned to haunt Indian hearts with 159 wicketless runs in the second session. The former took his first 30 deliveries to assess conditions but simply dealt in boundaries thereafter while Smith was content to rattle along slowly at the other end. The introduction of Jadeja and Nitish Kumar Reddy into the attack only spurred Head along further and the South Australian batter brought up his third Test against India off just 115 deliveries at the stroke of Tea.
Post the break, the runs came even faster as the duo added a further 82 runs at quicker than run-a-ball to take their stand to 241, with Smith bringing up his 15th century against India across all formats in the process. It took a second new ball and the return of Bumrah into the attack to have Smith caught by a diving Rohit Sharma at slip and the right-arm quick completed his fifer by inflicting the same fate on Mitch Marsh. However, Alex Carey kept the momentum going with a rapid-fire 45 across both sides of Pat Cummins’ 20-run cameo to make the final score read a resounding 401/7, including Carey and Starc as the incumbent batters.
Rohit’s legacy as a captain without Bumrah pic.twitter.com/3HIPh8zhOO
— Absol (@149Wanderers) December 15, 2024
Legend
Lone warrior
Bumrah is The Lone Warrior right now in Current Indian Team, Only He Performs in every damn match.#INDvsAUS #BGT2025 pic.twitter.com/LDWq1c3srK
— Mukesh Ambani ᴾᵃʳᵒᵈʸ (@AmbaniHu) December 15, 2024
Bumrah’s back must be hurting from carrying this team game after game. pic.twitter.com/HDYrsuASAz
— Raj (@hxns1anda) December 15, 2024
Carry job
Legend
Jasprit Bumrah pic.twitter.com/y0bcrcZL1q
— 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐨 (@SergioCSKK) December 15, 2024
Just imagined the state of this team without Bumrah pic.twitter.com/lszp2DzlVZ
— Heisenberg ☢ (@internetumpire) December 15, 2024
Unreal
Travis head is Australia’s VVS Laxman against India, unreal consistency.
— EngiNerd. (@mainbhiengineer) December 15, 2024
Superb
What a day it was Australia 🔥
Proper hammering of India 🔨
405/7 , India must be praying for Rain 🌧️😂#INDvsAUS pic.twitter.com/5QAKMSGwcc— H A M Z A 🇵🇰 (@HamzaKhan259) December 15, 2024
India is playing with only one bowler.
Remove Jasprit Bumrah from the team and Australia will end up making 700+ runs. pic.twitter.com/8qvE2GhjkB— Incognito (@Incognito_qfs) December 15, 2024
