Mitchell Johnson returned to his aggressive bearded best on day four of the second Border-Gavaskar test in Brisbane with an emphatic display of angry seam bowling that temporarily reduced India to 117/6 and ultimately delivered a four wicket win.
The match didn’t follow the obvious theme established in game one. In fact India were at several times in significant positions of strength before either gifting Australia back the momentum or having it wrestled back by Mitchell Johnson.
The imploding version happened initially during their first effort at bat. After surviving a sweltering hot first day to finish on 311/4 the Indians struggled on day two, giving away their next six wickets for the addition of just 97 further runs. The wickets of Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhonia and Ravichandran Ashwin undid Murali Vijay’s sensational effort of 144. Only tiredness managed to dislodge Vijay when he lost concentration and tried to hit Lyon out of the ground. The same couldn’t be said for the rest of the order as they lost their advantage to Josh Hazlewood and looseness.
Despite the collapse, the tourists were still in control as Australia failed to impress in their first innings. They themselves fell to 247/6, still 161 behind. Cue Johnson the batsman to rescue the situation and thrash the questionable short pitch bowling tactic. Johnson had already been reminded that he had taken few wickets in the series (and none in the first innings) which appeared to spurn him on. His response was to remind the Indian batsmen how few runs some of them had scored as he tore into the Indian attack for 88. His role was the aggressor in a partnership with century maker and first time captain Steven Smith, who continued his fine form for 133. Even Mitchell Starc (52), Nathan Lyon (23), and Hazlewood (32) got in on the action to rub salt into the fast bowlers’ wounds – Australia led by 97.
India survived the night – comfortably reaching 71/1. However, Shikhar Dhawan couldn’t bat in the morning after taking an unpopular knock in the practice nets, leaving Virat Kohli just five minutes to try and settle into his work. He couldn’t and India lost the plot to a menacing Johnson. His morning spell was worth 3-14 and in truth was the winning of the game.
A target of just 128 was never going to truly test Australia, and even though they did lose six wickets getting there, that was in a final session that drifted in a lazy manner until the end, rather than any great Indian bowling. Chris Rogers guided the chase skilfully outlining his benefit to Australia in a range of conditions. He backed up his first innings 55 with a second 55 to ease any nerves in the Australian camp. Steven Smith narrowly took out the man of the match award from Johnson and Hazlewood for his third score in the series at a crucial time.
Once more the game could easily be classified as times of fight vs. times of one-sidedness. We fear now that most of the fight may have left the Indians as they resign themselves to another overseas whitewash. That and their inability to take twenty wickets means they’ll struggle in the rest of the series. Unibet agrees with their just updated series odds below:
Series Odds*
Australia 4-0 – $2.20
Australia 3-1 – $5.50
Australia 3-0 – $3.5
Australia 2-1 – $12.00
Australia 2-0 – $13
Drawn 2-2 – $21
*Series odds from Unibet.
Australia 505 (Smith 133, Johnson 88) and 6 for 130 (Rogers 55) beat India 408 (Vijay 144, Rahane 81) and 224 (Dhawan 81, Johnson 4-61) by four wickets
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Paddypower:
Back Australia to take the Ashes home with them.
Betway:
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Coral:
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Bet365:
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