India vs Australia: Ravichandran Ashwin surpasses Kapil Dev for key milestone

Ravichandran Ashwin returned with three wickets on Thursday to help India bundle out Australia for 197 in the Border-Gavaskar third Test. Ashwin’s performance, in which he took the wickets of Peter Handscomb, Alex Carey and Nathan Lyon, helped limit the hosts’ lead. The three wickets also meant that Ashwin now has 689 international wickets, surpassing Kapil Dev (687), as the third-highest wicket-taker for India across formats. Anil Kumble (953) and Harbhajan Singh (707) occupy the top two spots.

Talking about the match, Australia lost the last six wickets of the first innings for just 11 runs on the second day of the third Test against India and got bundled out for 197 runs.

India were 13-0 at lunch in their second innings in Indore, trailing by 75 runs after captain Rohit Sharma (5) and Shubman Gill (4) secured 10 minutes of tough talk before the interval.

Resuming on 156-4, Cameron Green and Peter Handscomb did well to survive the first hour on a spinning pitch with unexpected bounce, but once they were gone India took three wickets from fast bowler Umesh Yadav. With hastily finished off the rest of the sequence.

Tall Green used his long stride to neutralize India’s spin attack, keeping busy between the wickets as Australia looked to build on a solid lead after losing the first two matches and stage a comeback in the four-Test series Did.

But Handscomb was dismissed for 19 after the drinks break, caught by Shreyas Iyer at short leg off Ravichandran Ashwin, adding 12 runs to his night’s score.

The next over Cameron Green fell for 21, trapped lbw by Umesh, who then bowled Mitchell Starc for a single, sending the left-hander’s off-stump towards wicket-keeper Shrikar Bharath.

Alex Carey departs for three, Ashwin lbw, Umesh bowls Todd Murphy for a duck and Nathan Lyon is bowled by Ashwin for five.

Ravindra Jadeja had taken all four Australian wickets on Wednesday, including that of Usman Khawaja, who scored 60 and ended with figures of 4-78. Ashwin took 3-44 and Umesh took 3-12.

India won the toss and batted on Wednesday, the first day, only for Australia’s spinners to bowl them out for just 109 after lunch, with Matthew Kuhnmann taking five wickets.

with AFP inputs

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