KL Rahul after surviving the toughest of phases, a dropped catch and a lapse in concentration with wickets falling all around him was looking good to get his second Test hundred in Australia but it wasn’t to be as Steve Smith redeemed himself to take a blinder and a half in slips on Day 4 of the ongoing third Test at Gabba, Brisbane. Rahul, who has been the best batter for India in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy thus far, had ground it out, had played out the difficult period and was in the zone but Smith had a spectacular piece of play in store.
It was in the 43rd over of the Indian batting innings when Nathan Lyon, who had started bowling wider to KL Rahul in order to get him caught at point, finally got his plan implemented. Rahul made room to play it late and cut through slips, Smith anticipated it outstandingly to start moving to his right as soon as the batter moved a bit towards his leg side to play the shot. Smith reacted in milliseconds to try and reach towards the ball and stretched his right arm to the fullest to hold on to the ball.
Smith was pumped up! He knew what it meant to him. He let out a couple of big roars. Lyon was over the moon because he knew he had broken the stand and taken the big wicket. Rahul was distraught. He knew he was closing in on a special knock, he didn’t want to leave. Rahul deserved a ton but it wasn’t to be as Smith sang the redemption song in style.
Watch the video here:
For the uninitiated, Smith dropped a sitter in the second slip on the first ball of Day 4 to give Rahul a life and the Indian opener made it count to take India’s innings a bit deeper than expected after the visitors lost skipper Rohit Sharma cheaply yet again.
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Ravindra Jadeja in his first knock of the series has been really solid and has kept the Australian bowlers at bay. Australia are one bowler short with Josh Hazlewood being taken for scans after experiencing calf soreness and India will be eager to get to the 250 mark at least in the first innings, if not beyond to deny an Australian win.
