London [UK], June 9 (ANI): An avid cricket enthusiast, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday said India will need a miracle to lift the World Test Championship title from the position they found themselves in at the end of Day-2.
After Australia’s batting mainstays Steve Smith and Travis Head dominated the Indian attack for the better part of Day 1, skipper Rohit Sharma and his men bounced back, picking up 7 wickets and restricting Australia to a score of 469. But by the end of the second day, the Indian team found themselves five wickets down with a score of 151/5.
“It’s a long shot right now. It will take us a miracle to win from where we were yesterday. At least, we are not going down to a humiliating defeat,” Tharoor told ANI in London on Friday.
At the beginning of Day 3, Boland claimed the sixth Indian wicket on the second ball of the day to put Australia further in control.
However, Shardul Thakur and Ajinkya Rahane’s 110-run partnership gave the Indian team a fighting chance. Tharoor praised both batters for the maturity they showed under challenging circumstances.
“This has been a pleasant and surprising morning as yesterday we had a very disappointing result. After taking 7 Australian wickets we lost five wickets very quickly. This morning I came and found out that the sixth wicket had also fallen. So I thought that Thakur would hit out and make some runs instead he batted very maturely and very sensibly and the result is now we have over a 100-run partnership between these two Mumbaikars now is that they (Rahane and Thakur) have given us a fighting chance and make a real game of this. Yesterday it looked like Australia was on the top but today it looks like we are having a close match and I am looking forward to that,” Tharoor added.
The Australian team managed to roll India over for 296. After the loss of Rahane’s wicket, Australia once again found themselves in the driver’s seat.
Before they fell in a space of a few deliveries, Rahane and Thakur took on the Australian bowlers, finding the fence regularly and rebuilding the Indian innings. Rahane brought up his 26th Test half-century, under tough and testing circumstances, in the 47th over.
Thakur, who has played enterprising knocks for his country in the red-ball format, fought fire with fire as the Aussies threw everything at him. However, the cricketing gods seemed to be smiling on him, as he survived some anxious moments. (ANI)
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Source: The Print
