Australia vs India: Josh Hazelwood rattles KL Rahul's woodwork with a searing yorker

The pitch in Perth is playing on the minds of the batsmen for sure. The visitors saw it misbehave on an opening day and the Indian openers Murali Vijay and KL Rahul looked tentative for the same reason. While the former got a snorter from Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood got better of Rahul with a brilliant yorker soon in the post-lunch session.

India were rocked early before lunch and needed a steady partnership to get back in the game. Rahul was looking good as he was leaving the deliveries on length and trusting the bounce in the pitch. However, in doing so, he probably got habitual of staying on the backfoot and Hazlewood sensed a chance.

The first ball of the sixth over, Hazlewood ran in to bowl a searing yorker while the batsman at the other end was waiting for it to pitch and leave. But the length surprised KL Rahul and by the time, he would bring his bat down, the red cherry had breached his defences to hit the stumps. It was a corker of a delivery from Australia’s modern-day Glenn McGrath and Rahul was clearly caught napping.

Even he didn’t trouble the scorers much by mustering only two runs after facing 17 balls and left India reeling at 8/2 early in the middle session of the day.

Here’s the video:

Kohli and Pujara fight

Meanwhile, Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara are fighting it out in the middle at the moment. The Indian captain has raced to the double-figure by scoring boundaries of both the wicket-takers, unlike the Adelaide Test where he had to work hard literally for every run. Pujara, at the other end, is playing the way he usually does. Though he has got some unplayable balls, India’s number three has gutted it out so far and this partnership will be crucial for the visitors’ chances in this game.

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