Ravichandran Ashwin, the man who made non-striker's run-out cool, again came close to doing the same in the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar series against Australia in New Delhi. With Marnus Labuschagne at the non-striker's end, Ashwin stopped short of delivering the ball in the 19th over of the innings on Day 1. While Ashwin completed his full action, he didn't deliver the ball to turn around and check the position of Labuschagne. The latter took his crease quickly after spotting Ashwin's action.
Watch it here:
Ravichandran Ashwin struck twice in three balls to dismiss Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith. He dented what could have been a really good start for Australia. The guests were 94 for 3 after 25 overs at lunch.
Earlier, Mohammed Shami had gotten rid of David Warner with a ripper to provide India the first breakthrough. It was not an easy wicket for the hosts as the Australian batters, especially Marnus Labuschagne, rode their luck at the start.
Senior off-spinner Ashwin (2/29) had got the prized scalps of Labuschagne (18) and Smith (0) in the 23rd over after Shami (1/31) removed opener Warner (15).
Visiting skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bat in the match. India replaced Suryakumar Yadav with Shreyas Iyer, while Australia handed a Test debut to left-arm orthodox Matthew Kuhnemann. The match in Delhi is Cheteshwar Pujara's 100th Test. India lead the series 1-0 as they had won the first game by a huge margin of an innings and 132 runs.
Khawaja (50 not out) was in the middle with Travis Head (1) when lunch was taken.
(With PTI Inputs)