WTC Final: Together, Ajinkya Rahane and Shardul Thakur brilliantly lead India’s fightback: Ajinkya Rahane, a veteran who hasn’t played test cricket since January 2022, shone on his comeback with an unbeaten 89 and a crucial 108-run partnership with SHardul Thakur, who was unbeaten on 36, to lead India to 260/6 at lunch on Day 3 of the World Test Championship (WTC) final at the Oval in this city on Friday.
The threat of getting bowled out quickly loomed huge when K.S. Bharat was clean bowled by Australia’s Scott Boland in the first over of the morning session as India resumed on 151/5. However, Rahane and Thakur fought valiantly to take advantage of Australia’s erratic bowling. In order to keep India afloat and mount a successful comeback and cut the deficit, they also had some luck thanks to no balls and shoddy fielding.
Rahane was on his way to being the 13th Indian batsman to surpass 5000 runs in test cricket when he displayed precise timing and application to produce some sparkling strokeplay against full and short deliveries.
In the meantime, Thakur persevered despite receiving some knocks to the forearm, produced breathtaking shots, and formed an excellent partnership with Rahane to put India in a position to avoid the humiliation of a follow-on.
On the second delivery of the day, Australia made the breakthrough when Boland got the fuller ball to seam in from outside off and beat Bharat’s inside edge to castle him through the gate. Cameron Green’s difficult catch to dismiss Thakur early for eight runs after Usman Khawaja lost the batter’s catch on zero would have given Australia another wicket.
Pat Cummins’ pace and bounce bothered Thakur, and he took two hits on the left forearm as a result. However, Rahane remained unfazed and used soft hands to drive twice through the square of the wicket on the off-side for fours before hooking spectacularly with the back foot off Cummins over far leg for six to complete his goal.
Rahane then escaped an aggressive lbw challenge from Green, edged a ball over the slip cordon, and leaned into a graceful drive past extra cover to pick back-to-back fours. Starc delivered a delectable half-volley, and Thakur astonished the audience with a thunderous cover drive on it for four. When the pacer pitched it short, Thakur smashed a beautiful cut-over point for another boundary.
At 72, Rahane received a life when he drove hard off Cummins and the edge flew between first slip David Warner and keeper Alex Carey. Warner barely managed to get a hand on the ball after reacting slowly. Mumbai’s 35-year-old hitter greeted Nathan Lyon by hitting a high pitch through cover point for four.
Thakur increased his self-assurance by scoring four points by flicking a half-volley from Cummins past square-leg. With a lovely back-foot punch through cover-point off Lyon for four and a signature cover drive for a boundary to conclude the over, Rahane brought up the partnership’s century.
Thakur has trapped lbw on 36, but replays revealed Cummins had once again overstepped, which allowed him and India to sigh with relief. He was fortunate when Australia requested a review for being caught behind, but they were unsuccessful and lost their request as India won the opening session.
India scored 260/6 in 60 overs with Australia leading by 209 runs on 469 (Ajinkya Rahane 89 not out, Ravindra Jadeja 48, Shardul Thakur 36 not out; Scott Boland 2-47, Nathan Lyon 1-19).
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