Key events
32nd over: Australia 70-2 (Labuschagne 10, Smith 15) Nitish returns for a fourth over. Labuschangne is bogged down with just eight runs from 43 balls. Finally, runs! He moves his total on with a well-timed flick off the pads for two. Siraj fields on the boundary and the pantomime villain gets a chorus of jeers from the Gabba crowd. Labuschagne drives the next one, an over-pitched ball on middle, but Bumrah moves quickly to his left to stop what looked a certain boundary. Good fielding India.
31st over: Australia 67-2 (Labuschagne 8, Smith 15) Another lovely shot by Smith from Siraj’s first ball. He adds two more with a controlled swipe through midwicket for two. The big beligerent quick retaliates by banging the next one in faster on leg stump and it’s very nearly LBW. Luckily, Smith gets a bit of blade on it. Good bowling! Smith was beaten by the pace there. and Siraj is starting to get the ball to skid on
30th over: Australia 67-2 (Labuschagne 8, Smith 15) Bang! Smith drives Nitish handsomely for three runs. He has 15 and is starting to look good.
29th over: Australia 62-2 (Labuschagne 8, Smith 10) A curious over as Siraj and Labuschagne throw a flurry of blows at each other for no runs or reward on either side. Some handsome shots by the batter but can’t pierce the field. Some scorching deliveries by the bowler but no edge. Ultimately, it’s a very entertaining maiden. Siraj comments on this curious turn of events with a flash of his forked tongue at the end of the over. Labuschagne blows a bubble and smirks. Don’t poke the bear Marnus!
28th over: Australia 62-2 (Labuschagne 8, Smith 10) Australia are slowly rebuilding after the loss of their opening pair. This partnership is now worth 24 from 56 deliveries. Jasprit Bumrah is out of the attack and they have the second and third-change bowlers Siraj and Nitish coming at them. Can they cash in? Not in this over. Nitish, firing them down at 127kph, bowls a maiden.
27th over: Australia 62-2 (Labuschagne 8, Smith 10) Labuschagne finds a single from the first ball of Siraj’s sixth over. The big quick makes Smith play at the next two. Fourth ball is short – VERY short. It flies over the batter and wicketkeeper Pant and runs away for five wides. Smith salts the wound with a glanced single from the fifth.
26th over: Australia 55-2 (Labuschagne 7, Smith 9) Double change by India as Nitish Kumar Reddy enters the attack for his first over of the Test. He delivers a mixed bag in his first foray, probing outside off stump and that leg stump line Smith seemns vulbnerable to. Five dots until Smith works one out of his ribcage for a fast-run deuce.
25th over: Australia 53-2 (Labuschagne 7, Smith 7) Jasprit Bumrah is grabbing a breather and captain Rohit Sharma has brought his firebrand fastbowler Mohammed Siraj into the attack. Right from the jump he gets Labuschagne hopping. Now he catches Marnus i9n front and not offering a shot. Huge shout! Umpires says NO. The India skipper says YeahbutNoReview. And it’s a good call – straight but flying over middle stump. Good bowling by Siraj, risky batting by Labuschagne.
Drinks are on the field here at the Gabba and it’s 53-2. Over in Hamilton it’s 54-2. New Zealand may have lost the series against England but they are going down with a fight in this third and final Test. A flurry by the tailenders got them to a first innings total of 347 and they now have both openers out and England in trouble.
24th over: Australia 53-2 (Labuschagne 7, Smith 7) Akash needs a spell. He’s releasing the pressure Bumrah builds with over after over of wider balls that are too easy for the batters to leave. Finally after four air balls, Smith drops and runs… and gets two leg byes. Awkward to watch as Smith thrust leg and bat at it, but it’s two more on the total.
23rd over: Australia 51-2 (Labuschagne 7, Smith 7) Another edge! This time it’s Labuschagne caught on the crease by Bumrah, squared up and snicking just short of second slip. Next delivery is a peach, sliding down the channel a whisker from the bat. Even Marnus claps his bat in appreciation of that one. Rightly so. Bumrah is on song. Somehow, after a couple more swishes, Labuschagne survives the over.
22nd over: Australia 51-2 (Labuschagne 7, Smith 7) Beaten! Labuschgnage chased Akash there and it very nearly resulted in his demise. Better bowling by the six-Test tyro from Delhi. But that’s wide and fiull again and Labuschagne punishes it, sending it just short of the midwicket boundary for three. And now more luck for Smith! He flinches and edges, sending it skidding through the slips cordon for a very tinny boundary. Fifty is up for Australia.
21st over: Australia 44-2 (Labuschagne 4, Smith 3) Bumrah to Smith. This will be quite the duel. Smith is caught on the hip by a ball angling in at 138kph. He pushes into the offside for tight run. Good strike rotation by these two so far. Smith started this 112th Test of his career needing 296 runs to reach the coveted 10,000 Test runs mark. He is four runs closer to that dream. As is Labuschagne, who scampers a single from the last.
20th over: Australia 42-2 (Labuschagne 3, Smith 2) Straight away Smith, who is batting way outside leg stump, is taking a big step back and across to negate the swing. His first ball from Akash is a straight-out play and miss as he’s beaten on the inside edge. Akash is aghast. Smith takes a run through midwicket from Akash’s third ball to get off his duck. Labuschagne takes a single and Smith does likewise to close out the over.
19th over: Australia 39-2 (Labuschagne 2, Smith 0) Steve Smith is at the crease and Jasprit Bumrah is on a tear with two wickets already this morning. His first ball is a trap – a legside lure that Smith chases. Risky! That’s what cooked his bacon in the last Test but he still goes for it. A leg bye ensues.
WICKET! McSweeney c Kohli b Bumrah 9 (Australia 38-2)
Bumrah strikes again! McSweeney snicks off to Kohli at second slip and the visitors are suddenly on fire at the Gabba. Nine runs off 49 balls for the rookie opener in his third Test. Poor footwork and Bumrah angled it in and the edge was healthy and lethal. That won’t quiet the calls for NSW young gun Sam Konstas to get a shot as Australia’s opener.
18th over: Australia 38-1 (McSweeney 9, Labuschagne 2) Finally Akash makes McSweeney play… and he edges! But it’s low and wide of slip and scuds to the boundary rope. In one streaky stroke McSweeney just doubled the total it took him 44 balls to compile. Shackles sprung, he runs a single to celebrate. Labuschagne gets off the mark with a dodgy clip to fine leg, inside edging a straight one onto his pad and taking two. Akash had 0-3 from five overs but now has 0-10 from six.
17th over: Australia 31-1 (McSweeney 4, Labuschagne 0) Here comes Marnus. Can he pick up where he left off in the second Test? That strong knock led Australia to victory and saved a career which hung by a thread after two very ugly dismissals in the opening match. He gets behind the first few as Bumrah straight away attacks his pads.
WICKET! Khawaja c Pant b Bumrah 21 (Australia 31-1)
Khawaja goes! Beautiful bowling by Bumrah who banged it in at 137kph on a fourth-stump line and drew a feathered edge. India have first blood on day two and again the visitors have exposed Khawaja who has got himself into a fatal habit of jumping to meet the rising delivery. That one was full and angled and it caught Australia’s veteran opener indecisive with minimal footwork. He played… and lost.
16th over: Australia 31-0 (Khawaja 21, McSweeney 4) It’s Akash’s birthday but Nathan McSweeney is getting all the gifts. Six dots in this over but not one of them made the batter play. India need wickets and McSweeney, already a formidable astonewaller, isn’t going to chance his hand if he doesn’t have to.
15th over: Australia 31-0 (Khawaja 21, McSweeney 4) First runs! And it’s a handsome back foot swish through covers by Khawaja. Two runs. Bumrah was a tad short yesterday and he starts day two in the same vein. No sign of seam movement or swing so far. Bumrah squares up Khawaja on the next – good comeback by the master quick who starts his seventh over with 0-10. Big shout on the third as Khawaja misses a straight one but the edge was audible for mine. Maybe Jasprit was just warming up the tonsils. He finishes with a flourish, beating the batter with two zingers to close. Game on!
14th over: Australia 29-0 (Khawaja 19, McSweeney 4) It’s Akash Deep’s birthday today and he gets a four-ball over first-up to celebrate. His first ball is… wide. So is his second. Two sighters for McSweeney – what a gift for a batter who’s starting the day with four runs from 33 deliveries and a strike-rate of 11. Fifth ball is a no ball. Last one is a leave. So ends an over that took 22 hours to complete.
Here we go, folks…. buckle ‘em up and batten ‘em down!
As players prepare to take the field under increasingly blue skies here at the Gabba, it’s nice to hear Melbourne’s own Hunters & Collectors (street name: “Hunners”) providing the soundtrack for this summer’s thali feast of cricket…
Brisbane isn’t the only city complicating Test cricket with the unpredictability of its weather patterns. England and New Zealand are fighting out the final Test of their series in scorching heat and high wind. Here’s how Ali Martin saw day one in Hamilton.
With the series square at one-all and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy now down to a – weather permitting – three-Test shootout, both teams are eyeing the bonus prize of a spot in the World Test Championship, most likely against ladder-leaders South Africa.
Yesterday’s rain gave us plenty of time to ponder the permutations if weather intervenes in this contest.As Martin Pegan sees it:
India are the most at risk of paying a price if rain ruins this contest with the two-time WTC runner-up needing to win all three remaining Tests against Australia to guarantee qualification to another final. If Australia regain the Border-Gavaskar trophy for the first time since 2014-15, they would almost certainly return to the final after beating India in the 2023 decider. Australia could still qualify for the final if the series against India is drawn 2-2, with two Tests in Sri Lanka to play early next year.
Our own Geoff Lemon had plenty of time on day one to mull over where both teams’ fortunes lie based on the flip of a coin…
Preamble
Angus Fontaine
Good morning cricket fans and welcome to day two of the Guardian’s live coverage of this third Test between Australian and India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Angus Fontaine here for the first chunk of play (touch wood) before Jonathan Howcroft takes you through to stumps.
First things first: it’s ISN’T raining at the Gabba. It’s cloudy and it’s windy. It’s hot and it’s humid. Hell, there are even some skinny streak of blue overhead. But there’s NO RAIN. So all things going well, play will resume an hour early today with action to get under way at 9.50am local time (10.50am AEST).
The forecast for today is the best for the week ahead. Things aren’t looking so bright for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. “Showers and thunderstorms are possible during the next few days, however no significant rainfall is expected,” the Bureau has told us.
But let’s live for today and get ready for what umpires have deigned to be a minimum 98-overs of cricket. Rain condemned us to a measly 13.2 overs bowled by India on day one, all in the first session, as 81 millimetres was dumped on Brisbane in what meteorologists are dubbing a “rain bomb”.
That torrent triggered flash-flooding across Queensland and sparked fears the city could be in for floods as catastrophic as the record-breaking deluges of 2022. But it didn’t dampen Australia’s spirits as they sought to cash in on India captain Rohit Sharma’s curious decision to win the toss and bowl on a Gabba ‘green top’.
Despite the persistent showers, opening pair of Usman Khawaja (19 not out) and Nathan McSweeney (4 not out) kept their powder dry, compiling their highest opening partnership of the series and going to an early lunch safe and snug with the scoreboard at 28-0.
From the little we saw, India’s bowlers were a touch short, allowing three-Test rookie McSweeney to hang tough again after his excellent 39 in the second Test, as he left Jasprit Bumrah judiciously and eked singles where he could.
Meanwhile, his normally dour senior partner Khawaja showed impressive intent, leaning back and unfurling a couple of the lovely boundary strokes we’ve come to expect from him. Australia fans will be hoping for more of this on day two.
