{"id":23504,"date":"2021-01-17T07:51:21","date_gmt":"2021-01-17T08:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=23504"},"modified":"2021-01-17T09:05:02","modified_gmt":"2021-01-17T09:05:02","slug":"unlikely-heroes-sundar-thakur-drag-india-back-into-fourth-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=23504","title":{"rendered":"Unlikely heroes Sundar, Thakur drag India back into fourth Test"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Brisbane:\u00a0A pair of unlikely third-day batting heroes Sunday gave India a fighting chance of securing the draw they need in the fourth Test against Australia to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur, in just his second Test, put on 123 runs for the seventh wicket — a record for India at the Gabba — taking their team from a precarious 186 for seven to 309 before Thakur was bowled by Pat Cummins for an entertaining 67.<\/p>\n

All-rounder Sundar, on debut, batted well with the tail until he guided a Mitchell Starc short ball to Cameron Green in the gully to fall for 62.<\/p>\n

By the time Mohammad Siraj was bowled by Josh Hazlewood, giving him figures of 5-57, India had reached 336, only 33 runs behind Australia’s first innings total of 369.<\/p>\n

Australian openers Marcus Harris and David Warner survived six testing overs as Australia finished the third day on 21 without loss, a lead of 54 runs with all 10 second innings wickets intact.<\/p>\n

Without Sundar and Thakur, India, would have been in far greater trouble against an Australia side who must win the match to regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with the four-match series locked at 1-1.<\/p>\n

The two smashed the previous seventh-wicket record for India at the Gabba of 58, set by Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabhakar in 1991.<\/p>\n

India’s top-order batsmen all squandered chances to score heavily, with all but Shubman Gill getting starts but all except Cheteshwar Pujara falling to rash shots.<\/p>\n

– Defiant stand –<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The visitors began the extended morning session on 62 for two, with Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane at the crease.<\/p>\n

Both men looked to keep the scoreboard ticking over, in contrast to Saturday afternoon, where they were more intent on survival.<\/p>\n

They saw off Starc and Cummins but Hazlewood was introduced into the attack and produced a brilliant over which led to Pujara’s downfall.<\/p>\n

Hazlewood had Pujara in trouble when a short ball followed him as he tried to evade it, the ball hitting his glove and falling just short of Cameron Green in the gully.<\/p>\n

But two deliveries later Hazlewood got a ball to angle in, then straighten slightly to catch the outside edge of Pujara’s bat and Australia’s captain and wicketkeeper Tim Paine took a routine catch.<\/p>\n

Rahane and Mayank Agarwal steadied the ship but with the lunch break in sight, Rahane couldn’t resist playing at a wide ball from left-arm paceman Starc angling across his body and edged a comfortable catch to Matthew Wade at fourth slip.<\/p>\n

The Indian captain, on 37, threw his head back in disgust at the manner of his dismissal before trudging off.<\/p>\n

The Indians began the second session at 161 for four with the dangerous Agarwal and Rishabh Pant at the crease.<\/p>\n

However, like Rahane, both Agarwal and Pant fell to injudicious shots.<\/p>\n

Agarwal slashed at a wide delivery from Cummins’ second ball after the resumption to fall for 38, caught at second slip by Steve Smith.<\/p>\n

Then to compound India’s problems, Pant did the same to Hazlewood, only to be caught in the gully by Green for 23.<\/p>\n

At that stage Australia were in command of the Test but Sundar, playing his first Test, and Thakur, in his second, had other ideas and defied the bowling attack with a mixture of solid defence and attractive stroke making.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brisbane:\u00a0A pair of unlikely third-day batting heroes Sunday gave India a fighting chance of securing the draw they need in the fourth Test against Australia […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23504"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23504"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23506,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23504\/revisions\/23506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}