Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel give India control – T20 IPL 2024

India 321 for 7 (Rohit 120, Jadeja 66*, Axar 52*, Murphy 5-82) lead Australia 177 by 144 runs

How competitive could Australia’s 177 prove? The answer, it would appear, was not very. This felt like a Test that would be set up by one innings, and Rohit Sharma is likely to have produced that performance with an outstanding century on the second day in Nagpur before the lower order benefited from his efforts.

Australia just about kept in touch, largely through the magnificent performance of Todd Murphy who claimed five wickets on debut, but India’s lead grew to a substantial one. Rohit’s century, his first as Test captain, giving him hundreds in all three formats both as a batter and a leader, was supplemented by Ravindra Jadeja adding a half-century to his bowling success alongside a second Test fifty from fellow left-arm spinner Axar Patel.

Due to injury this was just the fourth match of Rohit’s Test captaincy tenure so he had not yet had the chance to really imprint himself on the side. He could not have done much more in this display, facing 212 balls over nearly six hours in the middle, an almost faultless display on a surface which, while not as difficult as some had predicted, certainly kept the bowlers in the contest.

There was a different tempo to his batting on the second day compared to the first evening when he had taken advantage of a wayward Pat Cummins to skip to a 66-ball fifty. Instead the first session today brought him 29 runs and the second 33, before he was finally extracted by a superb delivery from Cummins with the second new ball, with perhaps a hint of tired footwork.

Full report to follow

Source: ESPN Crickinfo

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