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NEW DELHI: Spinner Nathan Lyon’s five wickets and a breezy start by the batsmen gave Australia the upper hand in the second Test against India despite a counter-attacking 74 by Axar Patel on an intense second day.
Patel smashed 74 and dominated his 114-run partnership for the eighth wicket with Ravichandran Ashwin to help India post 262 all out having slumped to 139-7 in the second session, leaving the tourists a lead of one run in New Delhi.
Australia raced to 61-1 in the final 12 overs of the day though they lost Usman Khawaja, their top scorer in the first innings, to a stunning reflex catch at leg slip by Shreyas Iyer off Ravindra Jadeja.
Travis Head was batting on a run-a-ball 39 at stumps, with Marnus Labuschagne on 16 at the other end.
“We need to stop Australia to around 220-250 and I think that will be a gettable target on this pitch if we bat on day four,” Patel, a left-hand batsman and a spinner, told reporters.
“The wicket is getting slower. We’ll have to work really hard and bowl consistently in the right areas because wickets won’t come easily. Bowlers will have to be patient and work on getting wickets, bowl in good areas even when the batsmen are scoring runs. In the last session they played aggressively and we noticed that.”
Earlier, having bowled out Australia for a modest total on Friday, India were in cruise control at 46 for no loss before Lyon (5-67) turned the match on its head.
The off-spinner mowed down India’s top order to leave them reeling at 66-4.
Australia blew all three reviews inside 25 overs but Lyon, leading the tourists’ three-pronged spin attack, kept chipping away at India’s top order.
The off-spinner trapped K.L. Rahul lbw for 17 and, two balls later, had a strong lbw appeal against Cheteshwar Pujara turned down. Pujara could not make the most of the reprieve though as Lyon, in his next over, struck a double blow.
The off-spinner bowled India captain Rohit Sharma (32) and trapped Pujara lbw for a duck in the batsman’s 100th Test. Peter Handscomb took a brilliant catch at short leg to remove Iyer off Lyon.
Virat Kohli (44) combined with Ravindra Jadeja in a 59-run stand to stage a mini-recovery but both fell to spinners in the second session.
Todd Murphy removed Jadeja for 26 but debutant Matt Kuhnemann dealt a bigger blow when he trapped Kohli lbw for his maiden test wicket.
Australia looked poised for a significant first-innings lead but Patel and Ashwin forged the only century-plus partnership of the match to frustrate them.
All-rounder Patel brought up his fifty in style, hitting Kuhnemann over deep mid-wicket for a six. Cummins dismissed Ashwin for 37 and took a stunning catch at mid-wicket to send back Patel as India were all out for 262.
“Obviously I’ve got an eye on this whole test match and what role I have to play in the second innings,” Lyon said of his display. “Very, very happy but still a lot of work to do.”
Australia opener David Warner, who was struck in the head while batting on Friday, has been ruled out of the rest of the match with Matt Renshaw coming in as the concussion substitute.
Scoreboard
AUSTRALIA (1st Innings) 263
INDIA (1st Innings, overnight 21-0):
R. Sharma b Lyon 32
K.L. Rahul lbw b Lyon 17
C. Pujara lbw b Lyon 0
V. Kohli lbw b Kuhnemann 44
S. Iyer c Handscomb b Lyon 4
R. Jadeja lbw b Murphy 26
S. Bharat c Smith b Lyon 6
A. Patel c Cummins b Murphy 74
R. Ashwin c Renshaw b Cummins 37
M. Shami b Kuhnemann 2
M. Siraj not out 1
EXTRAS (B-8, LB-11) 19
TOTAL (all out, 83.3 overs) 262
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-46 (Rahul), 2-53 (Rohit), 3-54 (Pujara), 4-66 (Iyer), 5-125 (Jadeja), 6-135 (Kohli), 7-139 (Bharat), 8-253 (Ashwin), 9-259 (Axar), 10-262 (Shami).
BOWLING: Cummins 13-2-41-1, Kuhnemann 21.3-4-72-2, Lyon 29-5-67-5, Murphy 18-2-53-2, Head 2-0-10-0.
AUSTRALIA (2nd Innings):
U. Khawaja c Iyer b Jadeja 6
T. Head not out 39
M. Labuschagne not out 16
EXTRAS 0
TOTAL (for one wkt, 12 overs) 61
YET TO BAT: S. Smith, P. Handscomb, A. Carey, P. Cummins, N. Lyon, T. Murphy, M. Kuhnemann, M. Renshaw
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-23 (Khawaja) Bowling: Ashwin 6-1-26-0, Shami 2-0-10-0, Jadeja 3-0-23-1, Axar 1-0-2-0.