Twitter Reactions: India trail by 307 runs in first innings after bundling Australia out for 369 in Brisbane Test

The second day of the ongoing fourth Test between Australia and India was marred by rain. There was no play in the final session as the hailstorm did enough damage to the ground. Despite conditions improving drastically in the last hour, the umpires decided not to resume play due to the wet outfield. However, in the first two sessions, it was again attritional Test cricket with the Indian bowlers doing a commendable job.

Australia started Day 2 at 274/5 with Tim Paine and Cameron Green looking good. The latter began well scoring two fours in the first over of the day itself and it seemed as if the hosts will cross the 400-run mark comfortably. The duo batted comfortably for the first hour of the day even as Paine got to a well-deserved half-century.

However, soon after reaching the milestone, Shardul Thakur bowled a superb delivery to induce an edge off his bat and Rohit Sharma pouched a good catch in the slips. Washington Sundar then straightened a delivery after pitching to shatter Green’s stumps while Thakur pinned Pat Cummins in front of the stumps with a yorker to leave Australia reeling at 315/8 from 311/5.

And once again, the tail wagged. Nathan Lyon played his shots while Mitchell Starc also rammed one for a huge six. They added 39 quick runs for the ninth wicket before Sundar bowled Lyon, playing his 100th Test, around his legs. Josh Hazlewood also made the Indian bowlers earn his wicket and was castled by T Natarajan after scoring 11 off 27 deliveries.

Australia were skittled for 369 runs, much fewer than what they threatened to post at one stage. The debutants, Natarajan and Sundar, picked three wickets each while Thakur also chipped in with the same number of wickets. Mohammed Siraj bowled his heart out but had only one wicket to show for his efforts.

Rohit’s brain-freeze moment highlights India innings so far

The onus was now on the Indian batsmen to do their bit. Shubman Gill, however, couldn’t play his glorious back-foot shots as Pat Cummins nipped him out early. Rohit Sharma though was in amazing touch and at one stage, things looked ominous for Australia. After doing all the hard work early on, Sharma was in his elements playing eye-catching drives and punishing loose balls.

But only Rohit Sharma could get out the way he eventually did. He came down the track to Nathan Lyon and was beaten in the flight. Even then, he went ahead with the shot which instantly looked ugly and ended up being caught by Mitchell Starc who was placed at long-on for a similar kind of shot. Rohit scored 44 and once again threw away his wicket after getting a start.

Ajinkya Rahane and Pujara then looked comfortable in the middle barring an odd delivery here and there. By the end of the second session, the visitors had reached 62/2 and the rain arrived just before the start of the final session of the day only for play to not resume again. India will have to bat out the whole of third day to make sure they don’t fall behind in the game like it happened in Sydney.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: