Australia lead by 158 at lunch as Bumrah, Siraj remove openers on Day 4

PTI, Dec 29, 2024, 8:17 AM IST

Melbourne: Jasprit Bumrah bowled a perfect nip-backer to remove Sam Konstas before the much-maligned Mohammed Siraj jettisoned Usman Khawaja with a peach as Australia crawled to 53 for 2 at lunch on the fourth day of the fourth Test here on Sunday.

Australia extended their overall lead to 158.

Nitish Kumar Reddy’s valiant effort ended at 114 that took India’s first innings total to 369 during the lengthy morning session, helping the Aussies to a 105-run lead.

Reddy finally holed out in the deep off Nathan Lyon (3/96 in 28.3 overs) as Indian innings ended at 119.3 overs.

The Indian bowlers came out with renewed vigour in the second innings and the decision to give the new ball to Akash Deep was a prudent one.

He didn’t bowl too many release deliveries even as Bumrah kept beating the bat of both the openers with monotonic regularity.

Konstas (8), who did live up to the hype during the first innings, played an edgy pull but then Bumrah (1/18 in 8 overs) bowled a delivery that pitched a shade back of length and jagged back enough to cut him into half.

Hardly animated after taking wickets, Bumrah was seen egging the crowd to get behind the team as Konstas was booed off the ground by a sizeable Indian crowd that chanted Virat Kohli’s name.

Marnus Labuschagne (20 batting) and Usman Khawaja (21 off 65 balls) did not look comfortable despite both having scored fifties in the previous innings.

Siraj (1/10 in 7 overs), who had a very poor outing so far, was brought in as first change after Bumrah had bowled his opening spell.

The way Siraj was able to set up Khawaja is what Test cricket is all about.

The pacer bowled four deliveries which were angling out with speeds varying between 139 to 142 clicks, all pitched on the six to eight metre length.

Having set the left-hander up with a series of away going deliveries, Siraj pitched the next one on an identical length but instead of going away with the angle, it straightened enough to breach Khawaja’s defence.

The joy was palpable for Siraj, who has been booed since his Adelaide bust-up while giving Travis Head a rude send-off.

Whether he marked his run-up, chased the balls to the boundary or came out to support Reddy to get his hundred, the amount of hostility faced by the newly appointed DSP of Telangana Police has been unprecedented.

He was well within his rights to ask the partisan Australian fans to keep quiet and he did that in style with a memorable delivery.