Shubman hits second Test ton as India reach 188/2 at tea
Insight Online News
Ahmedabad, Mar 11 : Shubman Gill hammered his second Test century as India went into tea at 188/2, trailing Australia by 292 runs on Day 3 of the fourth Test of Border-Gavaskar Trophy at Narendra Modi Stadium here on Saturday.
Gill was unbeaten on 103, while Cheteshwar Pujara was dismissed in the penultimate over before tea after having scored a fluent 42.
The cynosure of the second session was Gill’s unbeaten knock. He made most of the batting-friendly conditions as he looked composed and smashed some delightful shots in front and square of the wicket.
Both Mitchell Starc and Nathon Lyon bowled a disciplined line for a major part of the session to restrict the run flow.
Gill and Pujara played a waiting game in the post-lunch session when Captain Steve Smith employed seven fielders on the legside. It became difficult to score runs. The fetters, however, were broken when Gill hammered back-to-back boundaries off an erring Cameron Green.
The duo put on 113 runs stand for the fourth wicket as they grounded the Australian bowlers. Gill lofted Lyon down the ground and gloved a big sweep off Todd Murphy to get to his century, before Pujara departed after was given out LBW on DRS to the same bowler.
Virat Kohli had a few tense moments in the final over against Nathon Lyon.
Earlier, Starc resorted to short-stuff to both the Indian openers, but was taken to the cleaners and captain Smith had to take him off.
Gill and Captain Rohit Sharma added 74 runs before being separated. Sharma got out of his own mistake as he casually chipped Matthew Kuhnemann to short cover into the hands of Marnus Labuchagne after making 35 off 58 balls.
Post that, there were hardly any chances created as Gill compiled an unbeaten 65 and Pujara danced down the track against spinners and made an elegant 22 runs off 46 balls.
The closest Australia came to picking a wicket in the second hour was when right-arm off-spinner Murphy bowled a ripper, beating Gill’s inside edge and bounced over the stumps. Gill also survived a review for LBW after coming down the track to Lyon.
Brief Scores: Australia 480 (Usman Khawaja 180, Cameron Green 114; R Ashwin 6-91) lead India 188/2 (Shubman Gill 103*, Cheteshwar Pujara 42) by 292 runs
UNIINDIA
