It was an intriguing passage in the play, as two talented players had a go at each other, with none ready to stay behind.
Marnus Labuschagne and Jasprit Bumrah were involved in a cheeky verbal battle and stared at each other during the 13th over of the second innings. Both players were charged up, and the battle was intense in the middle.
Bumrah bowled a back-of-a-length delivery on the middle-stump line, and Labuschagne got behind it and blocked it. He immediately yelled “Wait on”, and Bumrah collected the ball and had a shy at the stumps, to which Labuschagne replied, “Come on”, asking him to throw.
On the following delivery, Bumrah bowled a beautiful bowl, and Labuschagne was beaten, and the two again had a stare at each other. This time, the batter nodded at Bumrah, acknowledging the ball was too good to play.
It was an intriguing passage in the play, as two talented players had a go at each other, with none ready to stay behind. Generally, Marnus is involved in such antics, especially early on in his innings, but Bumrah was also ready to give it back this time and had a full-fledged sledge with the Aussie batter, showing he was geared up for anything coming from the batters’ end.
Australia bundled India on a mere 180 in the first innings – thanks to a sensational spell from Mitchell Starc. During the second innings, Australia are off to a stable start despite occasional chaos in the middle.
They lost Usman Khawaja on the last delivery of the 11th over, courtesy of a terrific ball by Jasprit Bumrah. Barring that, the Aussie batters have been fantastic with their batting approach, for they batted with the right technique and navigated threats to stay on the crease.
Nathan McSweeney and Marnus Labuschagne have batted well to counter Indian bowlers under the lights and formed a fine partnership to stabilise Australia’s innings. They have slowly started to find their rhythm and will look to continue playing from here onwards.
There is a tricky phase still left in the day, and if Australia dominate it, they will be on the front foot. They have already been the dominant side today and will look to cap it off brilliantly.
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