Day 2 of the WTC 2021-23 Final belonged to Australia again, as they posted a huge total of 469 runs before sending half the Indian batting unit back to the dugout. Team India trail by 318 runs ahead of Day 3. Steven Smith’s ninth Test century against India along with Travis Head’s second highest score followed by a threatening bowling display from the bowlers put Australia in a commanding position at the end of Day 2.
Speaking about how the day panned out, Smith got off to his 31st Test ton in the very first over of the day, while Travis Head registered his third 150+ score in Test. The duo added 34 more runs in quick succession before Mohammed Siraj provided the breakthrough for India, as Travis Head nicked to Srikar Bharat after scoring 163 runs.
Couple of overs later, Mohammed Shami joined the party to dismiss Cameron Green for 6 runs, while Shardul Thakur cleaned up Smith (121 off 268 balls). Handy contribution from Alex Carey (48 off 69) at the end helped Australia post a humongous first innings total. For India, Siraj was the pick of bowlers for his spell of 4/108 in 28.3 overs, while Shami and Thakur managed to pick two wickets each.
Indian batters did not live up the expectations, as Australian bowlers rattled through the top order. Skipper Pat Cummins drew the first blood by trapping Rohit Sharma in front for 15, while Scott Boland cleaned up Shubman Gill in the next over with a ripper. Both Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli were dismissed for 14 runs courtesy of some lethal bowling display from Cameron Green and Mitchell Starc, and India were left reeling at 71/4 after 18.2 overs.
Ajinkya Rahane and Ravindra Jadeja led the recovery with a fine 71-run stand, but Nathan Lyon chipped in with the wicket of Ravindra Jadeja just three overs before stumps. India completed Day 2 on 151/5. Ajinkya Rahane (29* off 71) and Srikar Bharat (5* off 14) will continue the proceedings on Day 3. This is the last recognised pair and India would need both to play a long innings, if at all they need to go big in the finals. Ravindra Jadeja was the top scorer with his 51-ball 48 for India
Meanwhile let us look at the stats and numbers from Day 2 of WTC 2021-23 Finals:
31 -Steve Smith completed his 31st Test ton. With this, he surpassed Matthew Hayden’s tally of 30 centuries and became the batter with third most number of Test centuries for Australia. Ricky Ponting tops the list with 41 centuries while Steve Waugh is second with 32 centuries.
3 -Smith became the third Australian player, after Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke, to complete 2000 Test runs for Australia against India.
14 -Smith completed 14 international hundreds against India, equalling Ricky Ponting’s tally of most international centuries scored by an Australian against India.
52 -Mohammed Siraj (52) completed 50 wickets in the longest format.
285 -Travis Head and Smith together added 285 runs for fourth wicket. This is the highest fourth-wicket partnership in Tests played at The Oval. 266 runs scored by Wally Hammond and Stan Worthington against India in 1936 is second in the list.
9 -Smith completed his ninth Test century against India, equalling Joe Root’s tally for most Test centuries against the Indian side.
100 -Ajinkya Rahane completed 100 catches in Test matches.
2 -Travis Head registered a score of 163, this is his second-highest score in a Test match. His highest Test score of 175 came against West Indies at Adelaide in 2022.
3 -Smith registered his third Test century at The Oval, the joint-most by any visiting batter at The Oval equalling Bruce Mitchell’s tally.