If Australia manage to pull-off another good day at the office on Sunday, Team India could well and truly be staring at another streak - one they wouldn't be proud of.
Australia continued from where they left off in Pune by completely dominating the first day of the second Test against India in Bengaluru. Nathan lyon was the wrecker-in-chief - picking up a staggering eight wickets - as the visitors shot down India's famed batting line-up once again for a paltry 189 on Saturday.
A re-laid, lush outfield at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium saw Virat Kohli winning the all-important toss and making the obvious decision to bat first. With the pitch grabbing much attention in the first Test, both teams must have been happy to see a better strip, with a tinge of grass, this time around.
The hosts went in with two changes for the second Test - Abhinav Mukund in place for Murali Vijay - who injured his shoulder in Pune - and Karun Nair for Jayant Yadav. The Aussies, on the other hand, had declared that they were going to field the same 11 on Friday itself.
Here's the pitch report and the toss:
New ball bowlers Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood produced a fiery start for the visitors, not shying away from giving the batters a piece of their minds as well. The cracks on the 22 yards, too, made their presence felt soon enough, with the the bounce being consistently uneven.
Starc took little time to get the better of Mukund, trapping him plumb in front of the wicket. The left-handed opener, though, would be disappointed with himself for falling to a full-toss in his comeback game.
Cheteshwar Pujara then combined with KL Rahul to bail India out of trouble after the early jolt, but it didn't take long for Nathan Lyon to stamp his authority on the contest. After removing Pujara at the stroke of Lunch with a vicious one that bounced and turned sharply, the off-spinner went on to produce the moment of the day.
Kohli walked in to bat after the break and the nerves in him were hard to miss. Yes, nerves. The man who's established himself as arguably the best batsman in the world across all formats, for some conspicuous reason, seemed clearly rattled. The weight of his failure in the previous Test, and India's subsequent annihilation, was unmissable in his demeanour as he settled in.
After a tentative poke to a sharp bouncer by Starc in the previous over, Kohli suffered a brain-freeze of sorts, similar to the one he had in India's second innings in Pune against Steve O'Keefe.
Expecting the ball to bounce excessively the way it had been up until then, the Indian skipper once again decided to leave the ball way too early. Only this time, the trajectory of the delivery was much flatter and the ball skid through to catch him in no man's land.
Here's Kohli's bizarre dismissal:
From there on, it was a flurry of poor shot selections by the hosts. Ajinkya Rahane and Nair got starts but fell in a similar fashion - getting stumped after predetermining. And the last five batters managed to add just 11 runs in total with their bats, as Lyon proved why he is considered the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) back home.
The standout performer for India, of course, was Rahul. The right-hander played a mature hand, and seemed to be the only one capable of dealing with Lyon's guile. His 90 off 205 balls could go a long way in India getting on level terms in the series.
Australia then drove home the advantage by producing a solid performance with the bat. Openers David Warner and Matthew Renshaw took their time but did well to remain unbeaten at the close of day's play. As was the case in Pune, India didn't help their cause while in the field on Saturday as well. Albeit a sharp chance, Rahane dropped Warner at gully off Ishant Sharma early on in the innings.
Whether or not India will pay a heavy price for that lost opportunity only time will tell, but for now the visitors will be mighty pleased with their openers' unbeaten stand of 40.
India will need to get early breakthroughs on Sunday morning if they are to have a chance in this contest. With skipper Steve Smith in the form of his life, the two top-ranked spinners in the world - Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja - will need to prove their mettle yet again.
The importance of Day 2 of this second Test cannot be stated enough. If Australia manage to pull-off another good day at the office, Team India could well and truly be staring at another streak - one they wouldn't be proud of.
Here are the highlights from the day's play:
With such drama unfolding on the field, Twitter was abuzz with plenty of action, too. Here are some of the best tweets of the day:
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 "India, India v/s Australia, Australia, Cricket, Web Exclusive, Virat Kohli, Nathan Lyon, KL Rahul, Bengaluru, pune, david warner")
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