KS Bharat was clean bowled by Scott Boland in WTC Final© BCCI
KS Bharat was dismissed on the second ball of Day 3 of the World Test Championship (WTC) Final as Scott Boland claimed another wicket at The Oval on Friday. It was a length delivery from Boland which seamed back in and went right through Bharat’s defenses to crash into the stumps. The ball did hit the stumps on the way but it did not change anything as Bharat was dismissed for 5 off 15 deliveries. It was the second wicket of the encounter for Boland who enjoyed healthy movement off the pitch.
The failure of India’s famed top-order against a high-quality pace attack in a pressure game put Australia in firm control of the World Test Championship final in London on Thursday. Ravindra Jadeja (48 off 51 balls) and Ajinkya Rahane (29 batting off 71) offered hope to the partisan Indian supporters at The Oval with a 71-run stand off 100 balls before the former fell to Nathan Lyon 20 minutes before close of play. India were reeling at 151 for five at stumps in response to Australia’s first innings score of 469, trailing by 318 runs.
While the Indian bowlers failed to use the bouncer effectively on day one, the likes of Shubman Gill (13) and Cheteshwar Pujara (14) committed the cardinal sin of misjudging the line and length on a pitch with variable bounce.
Credit should also go to the relentless Australian pace trio of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Scott Boland, who got much more out of The Oval surface than their Indian counterparts.
Australia added 142 runs to their overnight total for the loss of seven wickets before being bowled out one hour into the afternoon session. Mohammed Siraj cleaned up the tail and was the pick of India’s bowlers with four wickets.
(With PTI inputs)
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