36 Jinx broken? Jink`s century puts India ahead

 Boxing Day Melbourne Test Day 2:

36 Jinx broken?  Jink`s century puts India ahead

Another fantastic day for Indian Cricket Team! What a determined captain`s knock by modest, soft spoken yet steely Ajinkya Rahane. Apart from first half an hour, 10 overs or so rest full day`s batting revolved around Rahane. He missed few, understandably bit more cautious at start, got few chances by Australian fielders. Even on the last ball of the day got hit on the gloves, by Starc bouncer and got life from Travis Head. But more importantly he is still there not out on 104 off 200 balls with 12 fours - which included excellent drives, square cuts, leg glance and spectacular pulls. Ravindra Jadeja is giving him a good company with 40 off 104 balls, uncharacteristically with just 1 four. Duo has put unbeaten partnership of 104 runs, taking India`s first innings lead to 82 runs in the process. India scored 241 runs in a day with the loss of 4 wickets, at modest 3 runs per over. Remarkable recovery from a team, bowled out on 36 in the previous innings and without their premier batsman.

Overnight pair of Shubman Gill and Cheteshwar Pujara started the day cautiously from 36 for 1.Just when they seemed to settling down nicely, after 10 overs, Pat Cummins struck twice. First he made Gill to induce an edge from a mistimed drive, to wicketkeeper Pane, who had failed to convert the half chance of inner edge earlier. Gill 45, 61/2. Followed with Pujara`s wicket in his very next over. 64/3.Wicket keeper captain Pane took a brilliant one handed catch, diving in front of the first sleep. That brought two new batsmen Rahane and Vihari at the crease. Both played cautiously, to deny Aussie any further control, of the game. India 90/3 at lunch - scoring 54 runs off 26 overs. After 52 runs between them, just when Vihari started to look aggressive, hitting Nathan Lyon for four, gloved the mistimed sweep in the same over. 116/4.Rishabh Pant walked in at no. 6 and in his characteristic style shifted the momentum in India`s favour, scoring brisk 20 odd runs with 3 fours. His positive approach rubbed on Ajinkya Rahane and he also started playing bit more freely. Just when things started looking great for India, Starc removed Pant on 29 off 40 balls making 173/5. Ravindra Jadeja walked in at no.7. India had an excellent second session with 99 runs in 26.3 overs off at a brisk 3.74 runs per over loosing 2 wickets. Post tea it was India all the way. Rahane and Jadeja not only negotiated the new ball threat in process, on the contrary played some attacking cricketing shots , taking full advantage of harder ball and attacking field placing. Aussie bowlers looked quite depleted, tiring. Smith dropped Rahane at 73 at second slip made things worse for them. Aussie shoulders keep dropping more. In spite of having such a world class quality pacers` trio, Tim Paine had to bring off spinner Lyon in the attack in just 10th over of the second new ball. Ajinkya Rahane completed his 12<sup>th</sup> century in style with a superb square cut. His second one at Melbourne, after the one in 2014, Boxing Day test. Lady luck continued to smile on India. As on 104 Starc made Rahane hurried through the defenses, hitting gloves, ball ballooned up in the air, was floored at short backward point by Head, while hitting both hands on the ground - made the ball to pop out of hands. This in a way summed up the miserable Aussie fielding performance of the day. Just when Rahane was getting the treatment, bad light and light drizzle ended the day`s play. India denied Australia any success in the post tea session with 88 runs off 28 overs at a nice 3.14 runs per over. Both comeback boys Rishabh Pant and Ravi Jadeja played their roles well. Hope that Ajinkya`s hand injury is not much serious. How much India can increase lead, through Rahane, Jadeja and Ashwin to strengthen their position is going to be very interesting to see on the third morning. So over to day three at 5.00 a m IST.