It's five-day cricket at its best as Team India put Pune fiasco behind to register a remarkable comeback-win over Australia in the second Test; it's now 1-1 with two Tests to go
Indian players celebrate after R Ashwin dismissed Australia’s lastman Nathan Lyon to win the second Test in Bangalore yesterday. Pic/PTI
It was sweet 16 all over again for Indian skipper Virat Kohli as he and his boys pulled off a 75-run win over the Australians here yesterday to record his 16th win as India captain. Having lost the opening Test badly, Kohli had promised intent here in the second Test but when his team was dismissed for just 189 on Day One it seemed they were headed for another shock defeat. That's when they got together and decided that enough was enough.
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Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Pic/PTI
They first applied the squeeze on the Australian first innings reply, following which two of their more experienced batsman eked out a century partnership against the odds. And then on a fourth day track, they unleashed that man Ravichandran Ashwin, who having seen fellow tweaker Ravindra Jadeja bag six wickets in the first essay, claimed six of his own in the second.
Remarkable turnaround
The remarkable turnaround prompted the Indian skipper to say that this series-leveling win was undoubtedly the sweetest under his captaincy. "Till now, this is the best one definitely," said Kohli. "It was a quite emotional game for us, quite draining as well. Everyone got along together, we showed team spirit," he added.
That they did. On a track made for the spinners, the two quicks Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav kept running in over after over. The pace didn't slacken, neither did the intensity. Someone like Jadeja would have expected big spells, didn't get any even as his partner Ashwin bowled and bowled and yet the left-arm spinner ended with six wickets. Then there was KL Rahul, eventual man of the match, with two big contributions with his broad bat. Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane had both failed in the first innings but they played out of their skin in the second. And finally there was Ashwin, who bagged his 25th five-wicket haul in his 47th Test.
Virat Kohli. Pic/PTI
'Never stopped trying'
"We never stopped trying. We didn't give in, we didn't let the opposition totally roll over us," said Kohli. "We knew if they didn't get a big first-innings total then end of Day Two and Day Three is the best time to bat here and Day Four would be very difficult. We saw the first-class stats, and no team has chased 120 here in the fourth innings, so we knew, once we get 150-plus, we have a fair chance to go at them. But eventually we surprised ourselves winning by 75 runs, honestly. I thought it was going to be closer than that."
It was evenly poised until tea on Day 4 and it could have gone either way. "I think this was the kind of game we needed to forget that hiccup in Pune and move forward again as a pack," he said, looking ahead to the third Test.
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