‘Bhai ne izzat bachali’ – Fans heap prasie on Ajinkya Rahane for his fighitng knock in WTC final agaisnt Australia

Indian batter Ajinkya Rahane was playing his first Test match after January 2022 and he didn’t disappoint the fans. The 34-year-old played a crucial knock in the ongoing World Test Championship Final against Australia at the Oval, England, after the top order failed to score big in front of the Australian bowlers.

After being asked bat first by Indian skipper Rohit Sharma, Australia posted a total of 469 runs in their first innings. Travis Head and Steve Smith took charge of the Australian batting lineup after early wickets. Head became the first batter to score a ton in the WTC final as he got out after scoring 163 runs off 174 balls hitting 25 fours and a maximum. While Smith scored his 31st Test hundred as he got out after scoring 121 runs off 268 balls with 19 boundaries. For India, Mohammed Siraj took 4 wickets, while Mohammed Shami and Shardul Thakur shared 2-2 wickets and Ravindra Jadeja put 1 in his bag.

Coming to bat in the second innings, India got the first blow in the form of Rohit at the score of 30 in six overs. A few deliveries later, Scott Boland destroyed Shubman Gill’s stumps while he was batting on 13 runs off 15 balls. Cheteshwar Pujara was also dismissed in the same manner as Gill by Cameron Green after scoring 14 off 25 in the 14th over.

Rahane and Jadeja put India back into the game

A few overs later, Virat Kohli got out after giving a catch to Smith on the slips on the delivery of Mitchell Starc. The 34-year-old got out after scoring 14 runs off 31 balls. After that, Ajinkya Rahane and Ravindra Jadeja took the innings further and added 71 runs for the fifth wicket. Jadeja got out after scoring 48 runs off 51 balls hitting seven four and a maximum. After his dismissal, Rahane took charge of the innings and went on to put up a century partnership with Shardul Thakur. Both batters added 109 runs for the seventh wicket.

Playing his comeback match, Rahane got out after scoring 89 runs off 129 balls hitting 11 fours and a six, and turned out to be the highest scorer for India in the first innings. Meanwhile, Thakur also prevented India to bowled out early as he got out after scoring 51 runs off 109 hitting six boundaries. Indian were bowled out for 296 runs, with 173 runs behind Australia’s first-innings total.