Mohali Test: Day 2. New Ball on strike?

Day 2 of the India Aus test:

Today’s big story was the disappearance of the new ball.   Where did it go?  Did someone lose it?  One can only assume that the reason Dhonut didn’t take it and persisted bowling for 14,367 overs with a soft beanbag was because they had to send someone to the shop to buy one.  There is no other explanation.

Once twelfthers returned from the shop with a newly purchased cherry the Indians finally managed to bowl the Aussies out.  For 428.  But not before Tim Paine had pretty much secured his Ashes place with an impressive innings against the spin attack.  Sadly, he got out in the 90s but he’ll be getting some accolades for getting Australia to a total that they really shouldn’t have got.

The Indians seem to be a side that, not unlike my under 10s aren’t that interested in fielding just batting, batting and batting.

Once they’d finally got the Aussies out, the locals turned up to watch, word must have got round that the boring bit was over and it was time for some fireworks.  Sehwag style.

The last 90 minutes of play saw the Indians post 110 runs  and Sehwag score a brutal 38 ball 50 before being undone by Mitchell Johnson.

After the, at times, excruciatingly slow pace of the Aussie innings it was a bit like we’d suddenly switched formats and were watching a T20.

Never underestimate the Indians ability to collapse but they would hope to secure a decent 150/200 run lead by the end of day 3.   The Aussie bowlers have some work to do.

Smart money is on the draw which cricketbetlive are currently offering at odds of 1.62 but keep an eye on how the market moves tomorrow.

Hopefully, they bought more than one new ball when they nipped to the sports store earlier.

Oh and remember, the whole series is being covered by Testmatchsofa.  Which will save you from having to listen to the horrors of Brad Hogg and Ian Harvey.