India vs Australia: Composed Rahane makes half-century to take India to 189-5 at tea on day 2
Melbourne: Captain Ajinkya Rahane led by example with a dogged half-century as India closed in on Australia's first-innings total of 195 all out in the second Test here on Sunday.
At tea on the second day, Rahane and Ravindra Jadeja were batting on 53 and 4 respectively, as the visitors reached 189 for five.
Rishabh Pant (29) and Hanuma Vihari (21) fritted away good starts after doing all the hard work.
Vihari fell to off-spinner Nathan Lyon while trying to sweep him from outside off-stump after he had added 52 runs for the fourth wicket with his captain.
In came Pant and despite the constant scrutiny around him, the wicketkeeper-batsman showed no nerves and confidently went about playing his strokes.
If Rahane managed to blunt the opposition bowlers with his defensive approach before opening up, Pant's aggression forced Australia to change their attacking tactic.
Rahane's first real authoritative shot was a cracking pull off Josh Hazlewood and there was also a sumptuous off-drive for a four. Balls directed on Rahane's pads were comfortably whipped through the square-leg region and he was equally good while playing the drives and late cuts.
At the other end, Pant rocked back to cut Lyon to the cover boundary and in the over before that, he went on the backfoot and pulled Pat Cummins in front of square for a four and then collected another boundary through the gully region.
However, just when he was beginning to pose a treat to the hosts, Mitchell Starc found a thin edge off Pant to bring the match back on even keel. It was Paine's 150th dismissal and wicket number 250 for Starc.
In the first session, India lost two wickets in as many overs to the relentless Cummins as Australia grabbed early honours.
Resuming on 36 for one, India started cautiously before losing both their overnight batsmen -- debutant Shubman Gill and the seasoned Cheteshwar Pujara -- in the space of 11 balls to reach 90 for three at lunch.
At lunch, Rahane was batting on 10 and giving him company was Vihari on 13 with India trailing by 105 runs.
The 21-year-old Gill impressed on his debut with a fluent 45 and played some fine shots during his 65-ball knock at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. While Pujara made 17, having faced 70 deliveries.
The first to go was Gill, who perished when he edged Cummins for Paine to take a regulation catch behind the stumps.
Australia were soon celebrating again as Cummins picked up the big wicket of Pujara after straightening him up with a brilliant delivery that angled in and moved just enough to induce an edge.
Paine, who lost a review after assuming that Gill had nicked the day's very first delivery, complemented his top fast bowler by completing a fine diving catch.
That brought Vihari to the crease and he got off the mark with a confident drive down the ground.
Vihari and Rahane negotiated the Australian fast bowlers thereafter to conclude an eventful first first session.
With a bit of luck, India survived the first hour but the hosts came back after Cummins' perseverance paid off to take the second half of the opening session's play.
Australia's bowlers were superb but they often bowled a tad short.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
