ICC Test Championship 
Border Gavaskar Trophy 
Australia VS India Test Series 3rd Match 
Played at SCG Sydney From 7-11 January 2021 
Brief Scorecard at Stumps Day Two  

Australia 1st Innings: 388 in 105.4 Overs (Steve Smith 131, Marnus Labuchagne 91, William Jan Pucovski 62, Mitchell Starc 24, Ravindra Jadeja 4/64, Navdeep Saini 2/65, Jasprit Bumrah 2/66, Mohammad Siraj 1/ 67) 

India 1st Innings 96/2 in 45 Overs (Shubman Gill 50, Rohit Sharma 26, Pat Cummins 1/19, Josh Hazelwood 1/23)
 
India Trails Australian 1st Innings by 242 runs with 8 wickets remaining 

The pitch is flat yet excellent bowling of both India and Australia kept it tight. Australia through brilliance of Maestro Steve Smith (131) and consistent Labuchagne (91) posted 338 in the ist Innings. In reply debutant Shubman Gill produced impressive 50. High quality bowling of Cummins, Hazelwood and Lyon offering no free bees to Indian middle order (Pujara and Rahane) led to all important Sydney test delicately poised at stumps of Day two. India could crawl to 96/2 in 45 overs.

Australia started the day two at 166/2 with champion batsmen Smith and Labuchagne looking good for a huge score. Jadeja removed Labuchagne at 91 as soon as the third wicket partnership reached 100. Smith kept going in his own merry way. But against top quality bowling of Jadeja and Bumrah Australia could not pile up a huge score. Smith was cruising along scoring his 27th test century. Australian Innings concluded at 338 when Smith trying to farm the bowling was smartly run out.  Had not Labuchagne and Smith recovered their brilliant form Australian innings would be in tatters. Smith’s brilliant century once again proved that form is temporary but class is permanent. Brilliant Jadeja extracted life from the flat wicket. His brilliance kept Australian score within manageable proportion.

Rohit Sharma returning to Indian team after a while was going along smoothly with new Indian batting sensation Gill till he was removed caught and bowled by Hazelwood 26. Young Shubman Gill batted braving the high-quality bowling of Cummins, Hazelwood and Lyon in scoring impressive 50. Once he fell to Cummins for 50, Pujara and Rahane batting for 11.2 overs added only 11 runs till stumps. The match Is now evenly poised. The team that holds on the initiatives in the first session of day three would take control of very important third test. The series is now locked at 1-1. The first innings lead will be the key. The wicket may break on day four and five.  It will not be easy chasing 300 plus runs in the fourth innings. 

BDST: 1642 HRS, JAN 08, 2021
AP