Key events
We had over 47,000 fans in the Sydney Cricket Ground yesterday and the queues are snaking in again today, particularly with the promise of Sam Konstas batting today.
I’m not sure India share Australia’s love affair with the Sundance Kid from Kogarah. Whether it’s batting like a boy in the backyard, chirping in the field or playing to the crowd, the 19-year-old is getting under their skin as only a lippy teenage boy can.
Here’s how Konstas got his innings started yesterday. The stones on this kid…
Please feel free to shoot me an email during the day’s play. There were some strong opinions piling into the InBox yesterday from all four corners of the globe about the validity of Steve Smith’s catch of Virat Kohli, the stability of Rishabh Pant’s hector protector and whether Usman Khawaja’s last-over stalling or Sam Konstas’s lip service was responsible for Jasprit Bumrah getting his back up and conjuring that jaffa that cost Australia their first wicket.
And while you’re online, please donate to The McGrath Foundation in this Pink Test.
Day one was an arm wrestle that almost dissolved into a barroom brawl. Here’s how that dramatic final minute unfolded…
For those who came in late, here’s how Geoff Lemon saw day one…
Preamble
Angus Fontaine
Greetings cricket fans and welcome to day two of the fifth and final Test between Australia and India in Sydney where the skies are blue and the fish are jumping.
Day one was torrid. On a spicy Sydney green-top India’s batters were battered – and bettered. They scored 185 runs, with no batter getting beyond 40, and wore just as many bruises. Australia’s bowlers were relentless, with Mitchell Starc snarling through 18 overs for three wickets and Pat Cummins chiming in with two. The quiet hero was Scott Boland who took 4-31 from 20 sublime overs with eight maidens.
As we’ve come to expect from these two sides, there was drama and controversy aplenty. Boland caught Virat Kohli’s edge first ball and Steve Smith got the grippers underneath the catch and flicked it up to Marnus Labuschagne to general pandemonium… only for the third umpire to find a blade of grass had touched the ball.
The other flashpoint came in the final minute of the day when Jasprit Bumrah lost his cool with Usman Khawaja who was stalling at the striker’s end. Sam Konstas, who had the crowd on a string all day with two catches and 2000+ selfies, threw a bit of shade Bumrah’s way in support of his partner and the two advanced on each other. Umpires got a stopper in the confrontation but the bear had been poked. Bumrah duly charged in with a demon ball that caught Khawaja’s edge and left Australia 9-1 at stumps.
That’s how we left it. How will it kick off today? Konstas is not out seven after skipping down and launching Bumrah’s first ball of the innings to the boundary. The boy wonder has a big target on his head today. Can he survive and thrive as he did at the MCG? Or will India, needing to win to clinch the series, wrestle back momentum again?
Batten ‘em down and buckle ‘em up. We’ll find out at 10.30am AEST.
