India suffered an embarrassing batting collapse for the second consecutive day as Australia closed in on a famous win in the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Indore. After being bowled out for 109 in the first innings on Wednesday, India folded for 163 on Thursday, giving Australia a target of 76 after just two days of cricket in the Test.Cheteshwar Pujara (59) was the lone warrior with the bat for India, hitting a gutsy half-century. Shreyas Iyer, who got a duck in the first innings, made a rapid 26 before being sensationally caught by Usman Khawaja. And these two knocks were the highlights of India’s second innings.
India were outfoxed by Nathan Lyon (8 for 64) who overcame his horror outing in Nagpur last month to grab a five-wicket haul for the 23rd time in Test cricket. Lyon also finished with a match-haul of 11 wickets. It was a great display of spin bowling and further exposed India’s inability to play slow bowling. While some may argue that a few of India’s batters “looked good”, it only seems logical to argue that batters need to score runs rather than just look good in phases.
