London, June 9 (Agency) Pat Cummins and Scott Boland knocked out Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill in quick succession, and nudged India into a hole and the Aussies were hungry for wickets on Day 2 of WTC Final 2023 at The Oval here on Thursday. Some splendid fast bowling from the Aussie pacers as they did exactly the opposite of the Indian seamers, twining a tight leash and bowling at stumps. Boland has been on the money, pitching the ball in the same zone regularly.India were 37/2 at tea with Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara batting on 4 and 3, respectively. Australia without doubt are ahead of India as their tailenders hung on with Alex Carey who made a very handy 48 runs to help Australia get to 469 in their first innings.Mohammad Siraj was the wrecker-in-chief, bagging four wickets, but the batting has been the nemesis of India as much was expected from the openers – Gill and Rohit to reduce the deficit quickly. Nevertheless, India has experience of Kohli, Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane to follow, but the bad news is that Boland and Cummins are on fire, with Nathan Lyon and Cameron Green yet to swing their shoulders.
Earlier, India did well to creep back into the game after they scalped 4 wickets for 97 runs in the morning. Australia were 422/7 at lunch, thanks to a 285-run fourth wicket partnership between Travis Head (163) and Steven Smith.India started off badly as Mohammad Siraj offered two juicy deliveries to help Smith get to his 31st Test century. But then the Hyderabadi hit a good length and finally forced Head to walk back after he gloved a short ball to Srikar Bharat, who took the third catch of the match behind the stumps.Green did not last long as the tall Aussie flashed hard at Mohammad Shami and was taken by Gill in the second slip, and Shardul Thakur bagged Smith after forcing him to play a false shot, cleaning him for 121. A splendid diving one-action throw by substitute Axar Patel brought about Mitchell Starc’s (5) downfall.