India’s fast bowlers put the visitors in a strong position against Australia on Day 2 in the ongoing Perth Test on Saturday. Jasprit Bumrah and Harshit Rana took one and two wickets respectively to bowl out Australia for 104 runs after the hosts resumed from their Day 1 innings of 67/7. Overall, Bumrah picked a five-fer while Rana and Mohammed Siraj took three and two wickets respectively.
In an interaction during Star Sports’ pre-match show, Australia legend Matthew Hayden hailed India fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah’s exceptional bowling performance in the ongoing Perth Test. He talked about how Bumrah’s fiery spell has put Australia under tremendous pressure.
“Yeah Bumrah left Australia with eggs on their face. It was a case of the poor star but a great finish for India. Australia will be going into day 3 under pressure. There’s still a lot in it in this Test. World-class players like Kohli and Smith didn’t get success,” said Hayden.
The Australian legend lauded Bumrah for reading the pitch conditions quite well and hitting the right lines and lengths.
“A Lot of touring sides get carried away by the bounce on Australian conditions. but not Bumrah, he was on the money from ball one. He was backed up by Siraj and Rana,” added Hayden.
Australia’s batting on Day 2
On Saturday morning, the hosts resumed from their Day 1 score of 67/7 but lost the wicket of Alex Carey very early when Bumrah had him caught behind the stumps by Rishabh Pant. Soon after, Harshit Rana generated steep bounce to dismiss Nathan Lyon and Australia were reduced to 79/9. However, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood stitched a 25-run partnership to take their team total beyond 100 runs.
104 runs is the lowest total for Australia at home against India since the year 2000. In their batting collapse, six players couldn’t get a double digit score.