Cricket

'Bhai ye to shuru hote hi Khatam ho gaya' - Fans react as Ravichandran Ashwin dismisses Steven Smith for a duck in 2nd Test

India locked horns with Australia in the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Thursday

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Daniel S
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Steven Smith

Steven Smith (Source: Twitter)

India locked horns with Australia in the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Thursday. Australia, led by Pat Cummins, opted to bat first after winning the toss. They got a steady start as the openers added 50 runs for the first wicket. However, ace India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin clinched two wickets within three balls and gave a huge setback to the visitors.

Ashwin dismissed both Marnus Labuschagne and Steven Smith in the same over to make things worse for the Australian team. In the 23rd over of the Australian innings, Ashwin trapped Labuschagne in front of the wicket and dismissed him cheaply. Labuschagne scored 18 runs off 25 balls with the help of four 4s and was looking dangerous for the hosts.

Smith who walked to support Usman Khwaja was supposed to build a partnership and help Australia to post a good total but failed to do so. He could not even survive two balls and got out on the last ball of Ashwin’s over. On the final ball of the over Ashwin trapped Smith as the ball took an outside edge and carried to the wicketkeeper. KS Bharat who was behind the wicket didn’t make any mistake and took a fine dipping catch. Notably, Smith’s wicket was Ashwin’s 700th First Class wicket.

Usman Khawaja fought for the visitors

Apart from Usman Khawaja top order of the Australian team has failed to build a partnership with him. When others were falling from another end Khawaja held an end and scored a well-made 81 runs off 125 balls. He was dismissed by allrounder Ravindra Jadeja as KL Rahul made a stunning one-handed catch at the point. However, Khawaja added 59 runs for the fifth wicket with Peter Handscomb before getting out of Jadeja.

Notably, in this Test ace India batter Cheteshwar Pujara marked his 100th presence in the longer format of the game. He was felicitated by former India Captain Sunil Gavaskar before the match. Gavaskar handed him a special cap for his 100th game while the Indian team and Australian openers gave him a guard of Honour before the start of the game.

Reacting to Ravichandran Ashwin’s bowling fans bashed Steven Smith on social media. A Twitter user wrote, “Steve Smith spends more time on the pitch while analyzing it, rather than playing on it.”

Here are some Tweets:

India vs Australia 2023 Cricket News Featured Ravichandran Ashwin IND vs AUS Cheteshwar Pujara