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Pat Cummins double wicket maiden MCG Photograph: (X)
Australian skipper Pat Cummins continued his love affair at the MCG with two wickets in a single over. India came out to bat on the final day of the game needing 340 runs to win the game from 92 possible overs of play left. The focus was on India’s top order which has been inconsistent so far during the tour.
Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal applied themselves for the first 15 overs of the innings to score 25 runs. In the first ball of the 16th over, Cummins got his team the first wicket of the innings. Australian skipper dismissed Rohit Sharma for the 4th time in the series.
Dropped Shubman Gill who was 2nd highest run scorer of India this year
— Prateek (@prateek_295) December 30, 2024
Changed batting position of KL Rahul who was doing well at opening
Rohit Sharma did all this just to score 12 runs across 2 innings, Shameless.#RohitSharma#ShubmanGill#KLRahulpic.twitter.com/s6fhUnDrMF
Indian skipper tried to whip a full ball and got a thick outside edge that flew to the slip region. Mitchell Marsh took a sharp catch on the second attempt as the Australian players celebrated. The Indian skipper had applied himself till that point before heading back to the hut for just 9 runs off 40 balls.
KL Rahul’s early exit put more pressure on India
With the loss of Rohit Sharma for 9 runs, the attention was on KL Rahul to show his resolve and grit. The 32-year-old defended the first four balls with ease before perishing off the last ball. Cummins bowled the perfect ball that reared off a length and took the edge of Rahul’s bat as Usman Khawaja an easy catch.
5 ball Duck for KL Rahul 😢 #INDvAUS#INDvsAUSTest#AUSvIND#AUSvINDIA#BGT2024#KLRahulpic.twitter.com/olMGR67nVW
— 𝑫𝒊𝒈𝒗𝒊𝒋𝒂𝒚 𝑺𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒉 🇮🇳 (@Stroke0Genius41) December 30, 2024
This was a huge moment in the game as the visitors would have hoped to go to lunch without much damage. Those wickets also seemed to more or less rule out any chance Indian fans would have entertained chasing down the total that was put on the board. With South Africa having already qualified for the WTC finals, the pressure is on India to keep their hopes alive.
Earlier in the day, Jasprit Bumrah got his third fifer of the series in just the second over of the day. Bumrah knocked back Nathan Lyon’s stumps for 41 as Australia were bowled out for 234 runs with an overall lead of 339. This was also the 30th wicket of the tour for Bumrah with one more game to be played.