India shake off Bumrah injury to claim first innings lead in Australia | Cricket News

Indian captain Jasprit Bumrah leaves with an injury on Day Two of the fifth Test, but Australia cannot take advantage.

India overcame the absence of captain Jasprit Bumrah to bowl out Australia for 181 and reach 141 for 6 after a total of 145.

On a day of high drama at the sun-drenched Sydney Cricket Ground, Bumrah took the first wicket to send India off, but left with the team doctor just after Lunch for a back medical check-up after spasms.

Prasidh Krishna (3-42), Mohammed Siraj (3-51) and Nitish Kumar Reddy stepped into the significant bowling gap left by their captain to beat Australia and take India to a slim first innings lead by four runs at River.

However, the wicket still had plenty of spice and paceman Scott Boland added to it with 4-42 in the final session. A four-cap run on FridayAustralia matched the Indian batting and dug deep into the middle order.

Rishabh Pant threw off the shackles and produced some extraordinary batting to stop the rot in his 28-ball half-century, but he too departed for 61 in the final hour, with Australian captain Pat Cummins claiming his 14th wicket of the day.

There was still time for Boland to claim his fourth victim in the form of Nitish Kumar Reddy and at the end of the game Ravindra Jadeja, who was not out on eight, and Washington Sundar, who was not out on six, departed.

“As many runs as possible would be great for us,” Krishna said when asked how big a lead the Indian bowlers could potentially defend without Bumrah.

“We don’t know how the goalkeeper behaves. It goes up, it goes down. If you can be aggressive, there is risk, but you get the reward of runs.”

Australian coach Andrew McDonald thought the “generational” bowling talent of both teams was the reason for the number of wickets falling and said his plans for Day Three were simple.

“First of all, we have four wickets to get so we try to keep that total as low as possible,” he said.

“There’s still a long way to go … so we’ll see what happens.”

A crowd of 47,257 basking in the Sydney sunshine certainly got their money’s worth as the momentum swung back and forth, as did Australia in the series with a 2-1 lead.

Debutant all-rounder Beau Webster, whose 57 was Australia’s highest score, was again hailed for his maiden Test wicket, taking Shubman Gill for 13 in a half-century.

Virat Kohli, who stood as India’s captain following Bumrah’s departure, was left at the crease for what could be his last innings in Australia and was pulled back to the boundary rope after Boland caught him at slips for a gutsy six.

Boland is fast becoming a cult hero in Australia and perhaps the loudest roar came in the 22nd over when he hit a peach of a panic to remove the stumps of opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and end a promising innings.

Starting with Bumrah’s dismissal of Marnus Labuschagne in the morning session, the Indian backers also scored at an average of 32 at 13.06.

Krishna also waved Indian flags when he caught Steve Smith on 33 to break his fifth-wicket partnership of 57 with Webster and leave the former Australian captain five short of 10,000 Test runs.

India, who have dropped captain Rohit Sharma for the match, need to win in Sydney to clinch the series and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

A win for Australia will not only clinch the series but also a place in the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s in London, UK in June.