So, within no time, boland’s express delivery struck a massive double blow to embarrass India, getting rid of left-handed wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant in his first ball and right-handed Nitish Kumar Reddy in his next. Almost there for a hat-trick, Washington Sundar’s luck held strong as he couldn’t edge an almost perfect ball in the channel.
All unfolded at the SCG on the 57th over of the first innings. To Pant, Boland from round the wicket bowled it short on the fifth stump for the fourth ball. It was on the third stump for over-the-wicket, and he played it well; the Indian was very patient with it, and at this point, the leftie was just lured enough to come across the line for a big shot and high-top Edged for Pat Cummins at mid-wicket. He was out for 40 runs from 98 balls.
Reddy’s shot was as awful. He walked down the track to his first delivery and ended up too close to an innocuous good-length ball on the fifth-sixth stump line. This was a delivery he could have left had he stood still, but it ended in an edge to second slip.
He had already taken the third and fourth wickets of the innings. He had already accounted for Yashasvi Jaiswal for 10 (26) and Virat Kohli for 17 (69) in his last spell of bowling. The commonality of both Pant and Kohli-who edged a difficult one outside off-was the fact that both lost his battle of patience against boland, who had relentlessly stuck to his plans throughout the spells.
Pant wasted yet another start as he is now one of the highest run-getters in this series for India but is yet to cross the mark of fifty runs in a single innings. It was the second single-digit score in succession for Reddy after his century while batting in the first innings on the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the last Test. He fell off the very first ball of that second essay against off-spinner Nathan Lyon.
India already stands at a score of 2-1 in the series whilst they are made to suffer without one more giant collapse in batting at the SCG. It will need monumental efforts from Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar to bring the visitors up to a good first-innings score.
