The second day at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune gave a clear hint to the Indians about the degrading conditions of the pitch and its adverse effect on their batting performance. The Aussies, at their turn, completely destroyed the Indian batting line-up with entire team returned to the pavilion after scoring just 105 runs. The most disappointing dismissal among all was that of skipper Virat Kohli’s who was out for a golden duck.
Surprisingly, it was for the first time in Kohli’s career that he was dismissed for a duck on the INDIAN SOIL. Plus, this was for the fifth time in his career that he got out without scoring a run which happened almost after three long years. Last time, Kohli departed for a duck in August 2014 vs England in Manchester.
Undoubtedly, Virat has been the key batsmen in the Indian squad since the time when Mahendra Singh Dhoni led the side. He became the first man in history to slam double hundreds in four successive series. The 28-year-old also became the highest scorer in Tests in a home season.
Prior to this series, Kohli’s form was a big point of conversation in the Australian media. He scored 1215 runs in the year 2016 including 655 against England in four Tests.
Earlier this day, as soon as KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane were dismissed after the lunch session, the entire scenario seemed going in the favour of the Aussies. Damaging the entire batting line up, Steeve O’Keefe took six-fer and hunted down KL Rahul, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, Jayant Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Jayant Yadav and Umesh Yadav. Particularly after Rahane’s dismissal, the team was reduced 95/5 and half of the top order were in the pavilion. And after lunch, within 38 minutes, the entire Indian batting was destroyed brutally and the hosts were barred by the Kangaroos at 105 runs.
