NEW DELHI: KL Rahul’s bad patch continued while Cheteshwar Pujara had a forgettable first innings outing in his 100th Test as premier Australian spinner Nathan Lyon reduced India to 88 for four at lunch on day two of the second Test here on Saturday.
Only skipper Rohit Sharma (32) looked in good touch as a vintage Lyon (11-1-25-4) was in his element, troubling the top-order repeatedly.
The Kotla track had a bit more pace off the track compared to Jamtha and hence Lyon’s deliveries at times hurried the batters.
Also giving a bit more air created doubts in the minds of the batters.
Rahul (17), who survived two DRS appeals by Australia, was trapped leg-before as Lyon tossed one from round the wicket and got it to deviate enough and find his pads.
Rahul’s saga of failures continued and now a question would be asked whether the Indian team management is being unfair by forcing Shubman Gill to cool his heels in the dugout.
Rohit seemed to carry from where he had left in the first Test and was also playing the sweep shot to good effect.
However he played across the line to a straighter one from Lyon and was castled in the process.
Rarely has Pujara walked into bat amid such fanfare and 20,000 plus Kotla crowd chanting his name but his milestone match turned out to be some sort of an anti-climax as he failed to bother the scorers.
In case of Pujara, it was another flighted one and it turned back enough with the orthodox Rajkot man trying to play a half forward defensive stroke.
The turn was enough for the umpire to raise his dreaded finger.
Coming back from injury, Shreyas Iyer (4) looked confident in his brief stay at the crease but a stroke of bad luck brought about his downfall.
He played one of his legs towards the leg-side and Peter Handscomb latched on to a reflex catch which wouldn’t get stuck nine out of 10 times.
Handscomb actually fumbled but the ball simply stuck between his legs to see Iyer’s back.
At the break, Ravindra Jadeja (14 batting), one of India’s best Test batters in recent years, was at the crease along with Virat Kohli (15 batting).
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