Match Blog: O’Keefe Dismisses KL Rahul For 51; India Attain Lead

A massive wicket for Australia! KL Rahul edges a delivery off Steve O'Keefe and Steve Smith flies onto his right to take a brilliant catch to dismiss KL Rahul for 51 runs. Rahul played brilliantly until he chose a poor shot to play in the 25th over.

Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli have taken India past Australia’s lead. The time has come for these two experienced batsmen to step up and capitalise on KL rahul’s brilliant effort at the top of the order.

India: 89/2 after 26 overs.

KL Rahul brings up another fifty in this series. He is the only Indian to score a fifty in the series so far. The Karanataka batsman has decoded the Australian bowling attack and is playing at his confident best.

Cheteshwar Pujara, who is in desperate need of runs, is playing the role of a second fiddle perfectly.

India are just six runs away from leveling Australia’s lead. They have crawled back into the match.

KL Rahul has reached 1,000 Test runs in his 15th Test match of his career. The Karnataka batsman has impresses one and all during his short career so far. The 24-year-old has got accustomed to the opening position quickly and has also been the only Indian batsman, who has batted confidently in this series.

India: 53/1 after 15 overs.

Abhinav Mukund gets beaten for pace yet again! He reacts late to a straight delivery by Josh Hazlewood and lets the ball go through his bat and pad. He gets bowled for 16 runs.

Cheteshwar Pujara walks in.

India: 41/1 after 11 overs.

KL Rahul and Abhinav Mukund have got India off to the perfect start. The batsmen have notched 38 runs without losing a wicket.

The Indians have come out to bat with a positive intent and haven’t looked uncomfortable in the middle at all.

If they surpass Australia’s lead without losing a wicket, then the pressure will be back on Australia.

Abhinav Mukund and KL Rahul have got India off to a decent start in the second innings. They have put on 25 runs together and are looking very comfortable in the middle.

The opening partnership is going to be the key for the Indian team. The batting line-up is very brittle at the moment. All the batsmen, who get starts in this innings, will have to take the responsibility of taking the team forward.

India: 25/0 after 6 overs.

Ravindra Jadeja wraps it up for India! Josh Hazlewood goes for a big shot and presents a simple catch to KL Rahul at long-on.

Hazlewood goes for one and Australia get all out for 276 runs. They lead India by 87 runs.

The bowlers have done their job, now it’s up to the batsmen to stand up for the first time in this series.

The Indians will have to look to string partnerships and at least set a target of 200 runs for the Australians.

Batting last on the Bengaluru wicket will be very difficult for the Australians. And Ashwin and Jadeja can run through any side in the world.

Ravindra Jadeja has strikes twice in two balls! This is exactly what India needed. Australia were running away with a lead of 85 runs, before Ravindra Jadeja first dismissed Matthew Wade LBW for 40 runs and then trapped Nathan Lyon in front of the stumps for a duck.

Lyon reviewed his decision, but to no avail. Finally, DRS seems to be working on India’s favour. Jadeja was underbowled yesterday and he has certainly sent a message to his captain with these twin wickets.

Australia: 275/9 after 121 overs.

Ravindra Jadeja, who missed a difficult chance on day two, has taken a fantastic catch. Starc slog-sweeps, Jadeja judges it well and takes a good overhead catch.

The Australian speedster has played a good hand of 26 runs and added 49 valuable runs with Matthew Wade.

Australia’s lead is getting very close to hundred.

Australia: 269/7 after 118 overs.

Matthew Wade and Mitchell Starc have started the proceedings for India on the third day and it is Ishant Sharma and R Ashwin who are kicking things off with the ball.

Australia’s lead in past 50 now. Both batsmen in the 20s.

Watch cricket expert Nishant Arora review the second day below.

Peshawar Zalmi beat Quetta Gladiators by 58 runs to win the Pakistan Super League (PSL) final on Sunday.

In the first-ever PSL match to be played in Pakistan, the Gladiators were left floundering at 13 for three wickets in the fifth over and never managed to recover from the setback as they were all out for 90.

Full Report here.

Ravichandran Ashwin may have picked just the one wicket in Bangalore but the spinner has once again made his way into the record books.

Somewhere in Australia’s innings, Ashwin bowled his 3701th delivery, breaking the record for the most overs bowled by a bowler in a Test cricket season. Indian coach Anil Kumble held the record previously when he bowled 3,673 balls in 11 Tests in the 2004-05 season.

Read: In Stats: Ashwin’s ‘Most Deliveries’ Record and Marsh’s Slowest 50

Virat Suffering From a Brain Fade: Former Aus Batsman Mark Waugh

Former Australian batsman and current national selector Mark Waugh feels Indian skipper Virat Kohli is suffering from a “brain fade” and said his “negative thinking” is rubbing off on his teammates.

Read full story here.

Two days of the second Test between India and Australia are all wrapped up and with the third set to start in just a bit, one thing at least is for sure - this match will not be ending within three days.

That however, may be all, as far as finding differences between the two matches goes - Australia in Bangalore have posted 237/6 in their first innings so far after India were bowled out for 189.

Overnight, they hold a 48-run lead. Wicketkeeper batsman Matthew Wade was unbeaten on 25 with Mitchell Starc 14 not out at the other end.