India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin struck twice in the second session to restrict Australia to 117/4 at tea on Day 2 of the opening cricket Test at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide on Friday.
At stumps on Day 2, Travis Head (61 not out) and Mitchell Starc (8 not out) remained undefeated after Ashwin, the lone spinner in the India side bowled his heart out to return 3/38 from his 9 overs.
Ashwin extracted enough turn and bounce from the Adelaide pitch to create doubts in the Australian camp.
Already with his tails up after dismissing debutant opener Marcus Harris (26) in the morning session, the Chennai tweaker started the second session by packing back Shaun Marsh (2) in the very first over after lunch.
Ashwin then doubled the joy for the Indian camp with the wicket of the in-form Usman Khawaja (28), who got a faint bit of glove to be caught behind by stumper Rishabh Pant, only for the third umpire to certify it using the DRS.
Here’s a look at what Twitter had to say about Ashwin’s Day 2 performance with the ball:
Marsh had himself to blame for trying to play an expansive drive which only resulted in a thick inside edge that trickled back onto the stumps. Meanwhile, Khawaja got a faint bit of glove to be caught behind by stumper Rishabh Pant, only for the third umpire to certify it using the DRS.
Khawaja was Ashwin's 179th left-handed victim, as the Indian became only the second after Sri Lankan maestro Muttiah Muralitharan (191) to claim more southpaws in Test cricket..
(With inputs from IANS)
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