India captain Jasprit Bumrah deservedly got his 11th five-wicket haul while debutant Harshit Rana bowled a fiery opening spell as Australia were bowled out for 104 at the stroke of lunch despite a stiff last-wicket resistance from Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood on the second day of the opening Test in Perth on Saturday. (Match Blog | Streaming | More Cricket News)
The day began on a bright note as Bumrah (5/30 in 18 overs), bowling the second over of the day, got one to rear up from back of the length and Carey's edge carried at a good height to Rishabh Pant behind stumps.
The skipper's celebration was understated as he purposefully strode back to his bowling mark even before Nathan Lyon had arrived. At the other end, Bumrah started the day with burly Harshit Rana (3/48 in 15.2 overs) carrying on from where he had left off on the opening day.
Unlike on the opening day, the rookie speedster used more short balls, and one such well-directed delivery accounted for Lyon, who was pouched at gully by KL Rahul. With 71 runs behind India's first-innings score of 150, one had expected the visitors to get rid of the last pair. But the short-ball tactic didn't work well against Starc, who chuckled while reminding his former KKR teammate, "I have a long memory Harshit".
Starc showed good defensive qualities before taking his chances now and then with some aerial hits. Harshit was replaced with Nitish Reddy for three overs but, with the ball being 40-plus overs old and the seam suppressed, there was not much incisiveness to his wicket-to-wicket bowling.
Finally, Harshit, coming for his second spell of the day, had Starc trying to slog and the skier was taken by Pant.
Brief Scores:
India: 150 all out in 49.4 overs vs Australia: 104 all out in 51.2 overs (Alex Carey 21, Mitchell Starc 26; Jasprit Bumrah 5/30, Harshit Rana 3/48, Mohammed Siraj 2/20).
