Key events
And now we’re coming off for rain. Rishabh Pant walks to the middle and then is told to go back.
WICKET! Kohli c Carey b Hazlewood 3, India 22 for 3
The danger threatened, and the danger strikes. Rahul pulls to fine leg, nearly four, but Starc saves it and keeps them to one. Kohli on strike plays the same bad shot that has got him out so many times in the last couple of years, drawn into a push on the front foot, far too wide to need to play. Why follow that line? But he does, gloves like magnets, and feathers it behind.
7th over: India 21-2 (Rahul 12, Kohli 3) Smart self-preservation from Kohli, off strike again to start the over. But Rahul puts him right back on strike by dropping a run towards point. Kohli plays a crisp drive against Starc to mid off, but no run. So the non-cordon fielders are mid off, mid on, midwicket, fine leg. Bouncer from Starc, Kohli wears it on his top glove with his hands almost above his head. Serious bounce.
Aditya Srinath emails in. “The only thing holding Bumrah back from being in the pantheon of all time greats yet, imho, he’s never taken 10 wickets in a Test match. Sifting through his stats, puts him in the same zip code as Marshall and Garner. I was jawdropped to be reminded that Marshall held a 20 average per wicket over 81 tests. That’s crazy…”
Took 376 wickets in those Tests! Unbelievable record, especially alongside three other hungry quicks.
6th over: India 19-2 (Rahul 11, Kohli 2) Run to fine leg for Kohli, plus an overstep from Hazlewood. Then a sensuous drive from Rahul! Down on one knee to go through cover, bold enough to play it against Hazlewood when the length is right. Tough to have that confidence when the balls a bit shorter are still cutting off the pitch in towards him. Then a less judicious shot to end the over, the length not full enough, Rahul driving on the up, and just getting enough on his shot to lift it over Marsh at gully, who flies again but this time can’t snaffle the chip.
5th over: India 9-2 (Rahul 3, Kohli 1) Swing from Starc, but beautifully driven by Rahul, waits for the inswing before playing a checked drive dead straight past the bowler for two. So watchful. Then the softest hands through the cordon, no carry even though he edges the ball. Doesn’t take a run, not quite enough time.
4th over: India 7-2 (Rahul 1, Kohli 1) Here’s the battle. Kohli Hazlewood. Nearly a return catch lobbed back! Hazlewood not spry enough to race down after getting his first ball off the sticker and up in the air. Five in the cordon, nobody at point or cover, as Hazlewood fishes in the channel outside off stump. Kohli leaves what he can, knocks a couple towards midwicket to the fielder there.
3rd over: India 7-2 (Rahul 1, Kohli 1) If there’s a bad matchup for Kohli in Test cricket, it would be Josh Hazlewood on a lively one in Brisbane. This was the only venue where he didn’t make a century in 2014/15, when he made four in four Tests. That was his only match here until now. He’s got hundreds in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth.
And before he gets to Hazlewood, he has to get through Starc. Almost edges a drive first ball, then gets a fizzing delivery that lifts past the shoulder of the bat. Escapes strike third ball from an inside squeeze.
WICKET! Gill c Marsh b Starc 1, India 6-2
Marsh has done it again! This time in the gully, and this time it’s a ripper. In this team, he would comfortably be voted The Least Likely to Get Airborne, but he manages to hurl himself to his left and cling on to a sliced drive that is travelling past him at pace. Pumps the fists and circles his arms like a choo-choo train as he runs off with delight.
2nd over: India 6-1 (Rahul 1, Gill 1) Ohhh no. KL Rahul has been hit on the arm, and I think he’s in trouble here, though he’s attempting to play on. Horrible ball to face from Hazlewood, it jumps sharply off a length and cuts inwards substantially. KL is forward to play it off the front foot and has nowhere to go. It hits the wrist of his top hand, missing the glove padding and the arm guard, and on the slow motion replay you can see the arm wobble with the impact. Hard to see how that’s not broken, or at the very least badly bruised. But he’s able to take the impact of playing a subsequent ball, and holds the bat in that top hand after the shot, so perhaps he’ll be ok. Surely the injury will stiffen up later and make batting difficult. He survives the over.
1st over: India 6-1 (Rahul 1, Gill 1) So Shubman Gill will face a ball before the opener KL Rahul. Positive player, aiming to score with a drive first ball, succeeding with a glance second ball. Rahul’s first ball is very wide of off stump. His second, inside edged drive to deep backward. Wow.
WICKET! Jaiswal c Marsh b Starc 4, India 4-1
Oh! Gone second ball! And what a ball it was first up. Fast and full and swinging, like the one that smashed Jaiswal on the pad in Adelaide, but this time Jaiswal gets an outside edge that flies through the gully for four. Not so lucky second ball, on the pads again, he can’t help playing a flick at it, but there’s a catcher at midwicket waiting. Huge hands of Mitchell Marsh, fingers pointing up, cup the projectile, and India’s tyro this series goes fail, century, fail, middling, fail.
We’re about to start…
Mitchell Starc warming up. Here’s an interesting little comparison. He and Bumrah both have career bests of six wickets in an innings.
Starc five times, Bumrah now five times.
Then with their innings of exactly five wickets, Starc has nine of them, Bumrah seven.
Starc has bowled in 174 innings, Bumrah in 82. Fewer than half.
There are various reasons one could posit, like playing in a stronger bowling attack compared to being the absolute go-to guy, but it’s still remarkable.
Uh oh. The covers are back on. Doesn’t seem to be raining right now, but there was a sprinkle.
“Very nice of Starc to see off Bumrah for Carey,” Ruth Purdue wrote earlier. And yes, that did work reasonably well. Though surprising that Bumrah only bowled two overs. Rohit does need to look after his irreplaceable asset.
At the moment Bumrah has 191 Test wickets at 19.73. Wild.
“What bugs me about the way we go about these minor rain stoppages is that once they go off there seems to be a minimum 20 minutes before play can resume,” writes Murrah Henman. “Surely once the rain is gone, they can just remove the covers, dry the outfield with a few runs of that rope, and get back to it? Or am I missing something?”
You’re missing a little bit, because they do need some time to let the water soak away. The rope knocks it off the top of the grass, but the soil is still wet. So the bowling team’s ball will get soaked, and it’s a big disadvantage. Giving it a bit more time does actually make a difference.
Australia 445 from 117.1 overs
It’s been a long old slog for India since Rohit Sharma asked Australia to bat first. We questioned that decision at the time, but if the rain gets India out of here with a draw, it would be a decent result. Their batters didn’t face the music on day one, but they’ll have to do a job now.
WICKET! Carey c Gill b Deep 70, Australia 445 all out
Finally, finally, Akash Deep gets a wicket. Not the way he would have dreamed of, with a nick to the cordon or a ball hitting off stump, instead it’s a length ball clouted into the deep. But whatever it takes when you’re none-for off plenty. Carey tries to lift the pull shot but doesn’t get the distance. Another important hand for the keeper, who is often last man out.
117th over: Australia 445-9 (Carey 70, Hazlewood 0) So 30 balls for Lyon’s innings, helped Carey add a few, and now Hazlewood sees out the over.
WICKET! Lyon b Siraj 2, Australia 445 for 9
Siraj on for the first time today, still being booed by the crowd. Good yorker first ball but Lyon blocks it out. Then edges into his pad playing a forcing shot. Third time lucky for the bowler, as he goes slightly further back on length and tempts the drive. Lyon should have been blocking that one too. The ball swings, the stumps splatter.
116th over: Australia 445-8 (Carey 70, Lyon 2) Carey wakes up again! Last ball of Akash Deep’s over, Australia’s keeper spanks a pull shot over square for four.
115th over: Australia 441-8 (Carey 66, Lyon 2) A review for lbw against Lyon, who kneels and sweeps and is hit in the ribcage by Jadeja. Juuuuust outside the line of off stump when the ball hits his body. It was close otherwise. Still strongly believe they should do away with that law. Shouldn’t matter where the ball hits body, if it’s going to hit stumps.
114th over: Australia 440-8 (Carey 65, Lyon 2) Akash Deep slips very wide of the off stump, off the pitch. Still just on the cut strip as it passes Carey, but lands off the strip behind the crease. Pant does well to keep it to two wides, as they run on the deflection. Lyon gets his first runs, driving square and judging the second well.
113th over: Australia 436-8 (Carey 65, Lyon 0) Resuming after rain, Carey happy to take a run from Jadeja first ball.
112th over: Australia 435-8 (Carey 64, Lyon 0) Sorry, got distracted by the rain before and forgot to note the 112th over, that happened before the break. One run to Carey from Akash Deep in that one.
Weird stuff at the break, Seven running a whole compilation segment including pre-recorded interviews with teammates about Steve Smith reaching 10,000 Test runs, which… he hasn’t done yet. Still 195 short, could easily not get there during this series.
Looks like it might be a short break, at least.
aaaaand it’s raining again. Thanks Brisbane.
(It is the rule of cricket that we get to be angry with whatever city it rains in.)
111th over: Australia 434-8 (Carey 63, Lyon 0) Almost a run out! The ball goes to midwicket and Carey takes off for the run. Lyon has to dive into his ground at the striker’s end. The good thing for Australia was that Jadeja was bowling, not fielding, so Gill’s throw was a touch wide of the stumps and Pant had to gather.
110th over: Australia 433-8 (Carey 62, Lyon 0) Akash Deep carries on, Lyon getting strike for the fifth ball and trying an audacious pull shot. He likes those. Misses out this time.
109th over: Australia 432-8 (Carey 61, Lyon 0) Jadeja burning through his overs, he is getting a bit of turn out there now. Single.
108th over: Australia 431-8 (Carey 60, Lyon 0) Akash Deep replaces Bumrah after just a couple of overs, and gets clattered! Carey launches a lofted cover drive way back into the stands! Goodness me.
107th over: Australia 424-8 (Carey 53, Lyon 0) Jadeja keeps going, and gets through a quiet over after a Carey single first ball.
WICKET! Starc c Pant b Bumrah 18, Australia 423 for 8
106th over: Australia 423-8 (Carey 52) Bumrah gets six! Starc does slap him for four through backward square leg, a skewed whack that was aimed straight, but Bumrah’s slower ball foxes Starc into prodding at it and nicking to the keeper last ball of the over.
105th over: Australia 419-7 (Carey 52, Starc 14) Well, Starc likes hitting spin! Banged a bevy of sixes during an innings at the MCG once, and he launches his first in this innings, Jadeja way over midwicket.
104th over: Australia 411-7 (Carey 51, Starc 7) Bumrah from the other end, and maybe he’s a little slow to get going after his exertions yesterday. Starc defends him solidly enough.
Half century! Alex Carey 51 from 53 balls
103rd over: Australia 411-7 (Carey 51, Starc 7) Not a good start to the day from India. Jadeja does get one ball on the pads that he appeals for, but aside from that there’s a slow bit of fielding that lets Carey get back for two runs after placing a ball to square leg, then a misfield on the rope for four after a sweep goes fine. Carey gets Test fifty number nine, to go with his one hundred so far. It would help if he ever got to bat with the top order!
Slight delay to the start of play in Brisbane as they finish warm-ups, some rain earlier caused that.
There’s another Test match on, of course, over the ditch in New Zealand, where England are in the process of dealing with a Kiwi fight back. But… there’s rain falling and the start to play has been delayed. Still, Rob Smyth is on the tools and you can join him here:
It was a big moment for Smith yesterday, after a long wait. Here’s my report from the ground.
Preamble
Geoff Lemon
Hello from Brisbane. It’s steamy, it’s cloudy, it’s damp. The forecast is for showers, it’s just a matter of how many of them we get at the Gabba, after we also lost most of the first day.
India will be the happiest with rain, given that things didn’t go so well for them yesterday. Steve Smith century, Travis Head century, enough said. Alex Carey smashed Australia to 405 by stumps and will resume on 45 not out, along with Mitchell Starc.
So presumably Australia will bat on for a while, but they’ll have to think about the amount of time left in the match, with three likely rain-affected days.
