India continued to advance toward victory on Day 4 of the first Test in Perth as Mohammed Siraj claimed two crucial wickets of Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja. Although Australia managed to collect 92 runs in the session thanks to a valiant 63* from Travis Head, the outcome seemed to be going only one way with 430 runs remaining and just five wickets remaining.
Smith got off his king pair a couple of balls later with a cover drive through the offside, but Jasprit Bumrah was right on the money right away when he smacked him on the pads with the first ball. On the opposite end, Khawaja top-edged a draw to the ‘keeper Rishabh Pant, and Siraj received a back of a length delivery to shoot up. For the first time since 1969, the home team lost four wickets while scoring fewer than 20 runs.
Mohammed Siraj
Both players, as well as first-change Harshit Rana, repeatedly thudded the pads and pounded their bat, demonstrating the relentlessness of the Indian bowlers. When the ball was determined to be just about clipping the stumps, Siraj had Head smacked on the pads and went into a celebratory appeal. But the umpire decided not to throw the batter out because Head barely survived the DRS appeal on the umpire’s call. Toward the conclusion of the first hour, Head scored a couple of boundaries to relieve some of his own burden.
The hosts scored 22 runs off the first four overs after the interval thanks to the left-hander Head’s continuous punishment of weak deliveries down the leg-side or if width was available. On the other end, Smith was gradually returning to his most fluid appearance. He also modified his approach from the first innings, waiting for the ball to come to him instead than making an extravagant shuffle across off-stump. But Siraj’s innings ended when he angled in and hit the batter’s outside edge to Pant, forcing him to straighten.
After Siraj’s brilliant volley over the ‘keeper for four, Head reached his fifty, and there was a cheer as he reached the 100-mark for Australia. Mitchell Marsh, on the other hand, gazed out to sea. He got beaten on the outside edge as well as the glove a couple occasions when the back of the length deliveries kicked off to him. Marsh needed 16 deliveries before he made a streaky three. At lunch, Australia is at 104 for 5.
Brief Scores:
India 150 and 487/6 – declared (Yashasvi Jaiswal 161, Virat Kohli 100*, KL Rahul 77; Nathan Lyon 2-96) lead Australia 104 and 104/5 (Travis Head 63*, Steve Smith 17; Mohammed Siraj 3-34, Jasprit Bumrah 2-26, ) by 430 runs
