Key events
34th over: India 124-2 (Jaiswal 62, Kohli 27) Kohli gets his alpha-dog stride into Nathan Lyon, a single into the covers is repeated by Jaiswal a couple of balls later. Lyon gives Virat too much width and is carved away for three across the sun drenched Melbourne outfield. Have I mentioned it is foggy in Derbyshire? You could cut it with a spoon and I can hear your antipodean jealousy clanging from here.
33rd over: India 119-2 (Jaiswal 61, Kohli 23) Cummins goes short, waaaay too short, a bouncer flies over Carey and away for five wides. KOhli leaves a couple on a fifth stump line before flapping a little at another short ball that is much more awkward from Cummins, in at the arm-pit. The ball squirts into the leg side for a single. There’s an hour left in the day’s play, it’s a crucial one in the arc of this series.
32nd over: India 113-2 (Jaiswal 61, Kohli 22) Lyon goes over the wicket to Jaiswal, bowling stump to stump. The partnership between Jaiswal and Kohli heads into the sixties. They’ve consolidated well after the tea break. A couple of singles added to the India score. The deficit is still a lofty 361 runs.
31st over: India 111-2 (Jaiswal 60, Kohli 21) Scott Boland is off the field, not sure if it’s comfort or injury but will keep an eye on it. Pat Cummins returns to the attack as his side seek to make a breakthrough. He’s back of a length and angling in, Kohli hangs back and defends a maiden off the back foot.
30th over: India 111-2 (Jaiswal 60, Kohli 21) Jaiswal is ticking, he does have these periods of intense scoring and then he goes back to mid-tempo. Lyon is charged and deposited for four down the ground. An attempted lap slog is cue ended in the air to short mid-wicket but there is not fielder there to swallow the catch. Jaiswal blows out his cheeks, he doesn’t want to gift his wicket like that.
29th over: India 105-2 (Jaiswal 55, Kohli 22) Jaiswal goes to fifty! It’s a brilliant over from the youngster as he flays Starc for four wide of gully and then carves for three through point to notch the half ton. The opener saves the best til last though as Starc spears in the yorker but Jaiswal digs it out and times it away wide of mid on for four more. He’s got all the shots and is full of confidence. He also knows how to get a big score, India need him to go big in this knock.
28th over: India 91-2 (Jaiswal 43, Kohli 19) Lyon drops short and Jaiswal uses his crease to rock back and punch through the off side for four.
27th over: India 86-2 (Jaiswal 38, Kohli 19) Starc strays onto Kohli’s pads and is flicked away fine for four.
26th over: India 82-2 (Jaiswal 38, Kohli 15) Lyon twirls away with a slip and short leg in place. Jaiswal attempts a sweep but ends up getting clonked on the lid. The spinner starts with a maiden.
Sam Konstas is enjoying himself down in front of Bay 13, getting the crowd involved. Shades of Big Merv.
25th over: India 82-2 (Jaiswal 38, Kohli 15) Starc sends down five dots before blotting his copybook at the last by going too full and straight, Kohli pings him off the pads through midwicket for four.
Here comes Nathan Lyon for his first bowl of the Test.
24th over: India 78-2 (Jaiswal 38, Kohli 11) Boland beats Jaiswal on the outside edge, the batter taking a step or two down the wicket and the ball seaming past his attempted drive. Boland stitches together another maiden.
23rd over: India 78-2 (Jaiswal 38, Kohli 11) Starc replaces Cummins and oversteps with his first ball back. Kohli drives him through mid off to pick up two runs. India’s deficit is now below 400. Gulp.
22nd over: India 75-2 (Jaiswal 38, Kohli 9) Anything you can do… Boland is slightly too full to Jaiswal and the dead-eyed opener doesn’t miss out, a gun barrel on drive races to the fence and earns a mid pitch bum pat from his senior colleague.
21st over: India 71-2 (Jaiswal 34, Kohli 9) Be still my heart. Virat plays a cover drive off Cummins that is as pure as an Alpine snow drift. High elbow, foot to the pitch, classical angles. Swoontastic.
20th over: India 65-2 (Jaiswal 33, Kohli 4) Boland is snaking the ball about off the seam, Kohli is watchful and busy at the crease. He drops and runs a single to keep strike. Enthralling stuff with the series on the line.
19th over: India 64-2 (Jaiswal 33, Kohli 3) Pat Cummins steams in with three slips and a couple of gullys in place. Ooof! Kohli attempts a hook shot to a short ball and just about keeps in under control but only picks up a single down to fine leg. Risky shot for not a lot of reward. Jaiswal looks more comfortable against the Cummins short ball as he swats the final ball of the over away to the square leg boundary.
Gervase Green sends in an email entitled ‘Millinery Issues’
Afternoon James/all, I fully acknowledge that Cummins’ leg-cutter to KL Rahul was a belter, so fair play etc. BUT… walking off to tea amidst various backpats, the parlous state of Captain Planet’s ‘baggy green’ was cruelly apparent on TV for all to see. Not sure if he’s trying to emulate or out-do Steve Waugh, but it looked in worse repair than a sixth-day Chidambaram pitch in Chennai.
Should the OBO community organise a whip-around to fund the fix-up? It’ll be a big ask.”
Have you seen Ellyse Perry’s helmet? Only identifiable by its dental records, if that makes sense. No? Oh well.
18th over: India 59-2 (Jaiswal 29, Kohli 2) Boland to Kohli. The bowler had the wood over the batter in the Adelaide Test under lights and he starts well here. Five dot balls angled in at the stumps, test ing out the Virat defences. A drop and run off the final ball sees Kohli pick up a single and keep strike for the next.
17th over: India 58-2 (Jaiswal 29, Kohli 1) Cummins to Kohli. 80,000 people on the edge of their seat in Melbourne and one more here 10,000 miles away in Bakewell. Cummins doesn’t find the magic ball this time, Virat clips off his hip for a single to get off strike first ball. Shot! Jaiswal leans back and upper cuts with aplomb to pick up four over the corden. He may be the best in the world at that shot right now. Jaiswal punches through cover for a couple more to end the over.
The players emerge after the tea break. Kohli and Jaiswal amble out to the middle with a crackle of energy in the Melbourne air. Scott Boland starts the evening session with a maiden. India need to weather this tricky period and build some partnerships, if they have a disastrous session here then this Test match could be gone and they’ll be 2-1 down in the series with just one Test left. Quite a dramatic turnaround considering how well they came out of the blocks in the first Test.
16th over: India 51-2 (Jaiswal 22, Kohli 0)
Dear old Alfie Sparrow is full of festive good cheer but fears for Rohit Sharma.
“Morning James,
I’ve been watching since India started batting after a far too long nap earlier in the day post Christmas Day leftovers meaning I’ve woken up early, but no complaints as I get to watch the test match.
It’s sad to see what’s happening with Sharma. There needs to be a conversation on what they to do with him. Is it a Joe Root case where you need to relieve him of the captaincy for him to perform his best? Or is it more serious than that? Could you see him not captaining/starting for India in the first Test next June? He is 37, and he’ll be 38 by the time the series comes around.
Hope you and everyone reading has had a lovely Christmas, and wishing everyone a happy new year.”
For what it is worth, I reckon Rohit has a got a final flourish in him in Test cricket. Great players have a habit of coming up with the goods once they’ve started to be written off.
Kevin Tong is joining us, by hook or by crook, from Singapore:
“Hi James!
Kevin here from Singapore. Since you asked, I am tuning in! While at work, on my phone, using mobile data (because I can’t seem to connect to the WiFi at work), but it’s totally worth it!
Singapore is a great place to follow Test matches Down Under! The gift that greets me every morning when I wake up is the beautiful preamble on the OBO before play begins at 7.30am Singapore time, the same time I start work.”
Righto, time for me to make an early morning acquaintance with a certain Mr Douwe Egberts before scoping and scooping out some of your emails. I can already see there a few Rohit Sharma laments in there.
Tea Break: India 51-2
That Cummins wicket is the final act of the session and sends Australia into the tea break with a skip in their step. Virat Kohli will walk out after the interval, he’s had a quiet few days so I’m sure there’ll be no frisson whatsoever inside the MCG in about fifteen minutes time. Ahem.
15th over: India 51-2 (Jaiswal 22)
WICKET! KL Rahul b Cummins 24 (India 51-2)
What. A. Ball. Pat Cummins serves up an absolute jaffa that angles in and then seams away considerably to knock back KL Rahul’s off stump. That was nigh on unplayable and goes into Cummins’ vault alongside the beauty he bowled to Joe Root in 2019.
14th over: India 50-1 (Jaiswal 22, Rahul 24) Fifty up for India with a KL Rahul clip into the leg side. Ouch. The batter is then pinned on the glove by a ball that spits off a good length from Boland. A shake of the hand after it was trapped on the bat handle. We’ll have one more Cummins over to take us into the tea break.
13th over: India 48-1 (Jaiswal 22, Rahul 22) Cummins replaces Starc and hits his line just back of a length. A tidy maiden.
12th over: India 48-1 (Jaiswal 22, Rahul 22) Jaiswal advances to Boland and slots him through cover for three runs. The bowler is targeting the front pad but KL Rahul doesn’t miss and whips for three more through the leg side. Jaiswal tucks a single off the last to make it seven runs from the over. India ticking over nicely as the tea break approaches.
11th over: India 41-1 (Jaiswal 18, Rahul 19) Shot! KL Rahul plays a languid cover drive off Starc that skims to the boundary like a pebble across an ice rink. A freshly shorn Starc grimaces and lomps back to his mark. Two more runs are collected off the over as an inside edge squirts into the leg side.
Let us know if you are tuning in, your thoughts on the game or a decent turkey curry recipe are all welcome.
10th over: India 35-1 (Jaiswal 18, Rahul 13) Boland does what Boland does in front of his home crowd, stitches together a tidy maiden on a nagging line. Around the wicket and angling in, he manages to get one to nip at the last that passes Jaiswal’s edge but without the terminal kiss. Areas Scott.
9th over: India 35-1 (Jaiswal 18, Rahul 13) I love watching Jaiswal bat, the baby faced assassin. He was a unanimous pick for the Guardian Cricket writers selection committee for the Test team of 2024. A few of the other positions were a bit more contentious.
Starc tests out the middle of the pitch but the Indian opener is unperturbed. He sways and watches, hangs back and angles into the off side to collect a single. A loud cheer goes up around the stadium as Scott Boland is coming on for a bowl.
James Wallace
8th over: India 34-1 (Jaiswal 17, Rahul 13) Thanks Angus and hello all from a very foggy English Peak District. As I sidle into the OBO armchair the MCG lets out a collective deep purr as Jaiswal plays a beauty of an on-drive and KL Rahul matches him with the same but through the off. Cummins guilty of being too full and is punished in some style.
