Australia vs India: Ajinkya Rahane sells Virat Kohli down the river in Adelaide

The Indian cricket team is up against Australia in the ongoing first pink-ball Test at Adelaide Oval. The visitors are looking forward to repeating their heroics of Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2018-19 and retain the prestigious Trophy. However, they received a massive blow when their skipper Virat Kohli, who was playing at 74, got run-out owing to a misjudgement by vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane.

The toss went visiting captain Kohli’s way and he elected to bat first. The opening woes continued for Team India as they lost their first wicket in the very first over of the day. Prithvi Shaw failed to read the delivery by Mitchell Starc and bagged a second ball duck as his poor form with the willow continued on the Australian soil. Shaw was soon followed to the pavilion by another opening batsman Mayank Agarwal who lost his wicket to pacer Pat Cummins on 17.

Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli then tried to reconstruct the innings and were playing a classic Test knock in the middle. However, Pujara soon left the field after getting catch-out on the delivery of spinner Nathon Lyon. This was followed by captain and vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane stitching a partnership to take India towards a respectable total.

Ajinkya Rahane’s costly mistake tilts the day in Australia’s favour

On the last ball of the 77th over by Nathan Lyon, the on-strike batsman Rahane pushed the ball towards the left of the mid-off and started to run. Virat Kohli, who is known for his excellent running between the wickets, showed faith in his partner and immediately responded to his call.

But after seeing the ball in the hands of Josh Hazlewood, Ajinkya backed out and went back to the crease. This resulted in Kohli getting stranded in the middle of the pitch with no scope of going back.

Kohli Run out 😭 pic.twitter.com/3ICB2URUiR

— Kalyan 🔱 (@IamKalyanRaksha) December 17, 2020

Thus, Australia easily managed to uproot the stumps to send Virat Kohli back to the pavilion who was otherwise in no mood of getting out. Though Rahane apologised to the captain for his bad call, there was no benefit as the opposition already got their most priced wicket. This brought an end to Virat’s classic knock of 74 runs off 180 deliveries along with an 88 run-stand between the duo.