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India ended the day with a 145-run lead and will aim to take it past the 200-run mark somehow.
Virat Kohli (L) and Jasprit Bumrah (R).
Australian ex-cricketers Kerry O’Keeffe and Brett Lee gave their predictions for the final showdown of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy on Saturday. While O’Keeffe said the huge Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) crowd might make Australia ‘nervous’ if India manages to go past 180, Lee said the visitors, too, might get ‘destroyed’ in Jasprit Bumrah’s absence.
India started the day by bowling Australia out for 181, taking a four-run lead. Bumrah suffered back spasms and left the SCG after bowling just eight overs and didn’t return until late in the day when India had started batting. India then rode high on Rishabh Pant’s half-century to put up 141/6, ending the day with a lead of 145 runs.
“You still don’t know who the clear favourite is. You’d think Australia, but there’s mystery over Jasprit Bumrah, the lead is (currently) 145,” O’Keeffe told Fox Cricket at stumps. “If it stretches to 180 plus, they’ve got a puncher’s chance of bowling Australia out, who may get nervous. 47,000 people turned up wanting theatre, they got theatre.”
India’; best phase of the day came when Bumrah left and they still managed to regularly pick wickets with Prasidh Krishna and Nitish Kumar Reddy chipping with three and two wickets respectively and Mohammed Siraj leading the pack brilliantly. In Bumrah’s absence, Virat Kohli stood in as the captain and marshaled his troops well.
“I was so happy for India that they had Nitish Reddy, who picked up two wickets, literally as Bumrah’s getting whisked away in the car to go get a scan done,” Lee said.
“I think (India’s pace bowlers) can do it. It’s going to be tougher for them, because Bumrah has been the enforcer. But sometimes, when you take away the main enforcer and the rest of the pack step up, that’s obviously when they can play their best cricket. It can go two ways. They can either, get destroyed in the second innings, or they can do what they did in the first innings and step up to the plate, which I think they will on this wicket.”
India need to win the Test to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and cling to a chance to reach the World Test Championship final.
- Location :
Sydney, Australia
