WTC Final 2023: Australia dominated India for the second successive day in the World Test Championship final at The Oval. After posting 469 in their first innings, Australia’s pacers rocked the Indian top-order before Nathan Lyon struck late on Thursday to remove Ravindra Jadeja.
It was another disappointing day for India who had started poorly with the ball on Wednesday. They bounced back strongly in the morning session with some quick wickets but India’s batters were clueless against some top-quality bowling from Australia. There wasn’t much from India except a defiant fourth-wicket partnership between Ajinkya Rahane and Ravindra Jadeja, hours after a superb show from their pacers led by Mohammed Siraj who finished with a four-wicket haul.
WTC Final 2023: Ravindra Jadeja has been India’s best batsman in this cycle of the World Test Championship and on Thursday, he showed why. With assured footwork, Jadeja took on the Australian pace quartet and was the more dominating partner in a 71-run partnership with his Chennai Super Kings teammate Ajinkya Rahane. The two men stopped the slide for India and made decent progress after it looked like India would suffer a collapse.
There was resilience from Rahane who returned to the Test side after being dropped in early 2022. He was in scintillating form for CSK in the IPL and he carried that confidence to The Oval where he was determined to make mark. But just when it looked like the pair would see India through to stumps without any further damage, Nathan Lyon struck in his second over to dismiss Jadeja for 48, bringing KS Bharat to the crease with a well-settled Rahane. An already imposing 469 from Australia looked more threatening when Pat Cummins dismissed Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill fell to Scott Boland, shouldering arms to a delivery he should have looked to play. India had lost both their openers in back-to-back overs after a promising start. Rohit and Gill had looked to take the attack to the Australian new ball bowlers but the persistence of Pat Cummins and Scott Boland paid off.
