The fourth Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at the Narendra Modi Stadium is turning out to be a slow-burn thriller. While each of the first three Test matches of this series had finished well in three days, at Day 2 on stumps, the second innings of this match has just started. And if the 10 openers that India played out before the end of play on the second session is anything to go by, then the hosts might as well get closer to Australia's first innings total.
A shot by Indian opener Shubman Gill in the last over of the day's play can be seen as a statement of intent as he scored a massive six knowing full well that he just needed to survive the over to get through to the end of the day's play. The maximum was the first six of the match and resulted in the ball getting lost for a while before someone from the crowd found it and threw it back on to the field of play.
Several social media posts related to the incident have surfaced online.
Meanwhile, India trail by 444 runs at Stumps on Day 2 with captain Rohit Sharma unbeaten on 17 and Gill undefeated on 18. India's scoreboard reads 36/0 after Australia piled on 480 runs. Captain Steve Smith won the toss and chose to bat first and with the help of a record-stand between Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green (114) who added 208 runs for the fifth wicket, the Aussies managed to post this solid total.
Ravichandran Ashwin picked 5 of the 6 wickets to fall on the day and eventually finished with 6 for 91. Axar Patel was the other wicket-taker on the day, getting rid of Khawaja who was batting on 180.