‘Pura game bigad ke chala gaye’ – Fans heap praise on Travis Head and Steve Smith for splendid partnership in WTC Final against India

Australia have been put in a commendable position in the ongoing World Test Championship Final against India at the Oval, England. After being asked to bat first, Australia lost the early wicket in the form of Usman Khawaja who went for a duck at the score of just 2 runs in 3.4 four overs. After that, David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne tried to take the innings further with a 69-run partnership for the second wicket.

After the partnership was broken, it was looking like that India could have a upper hand on Australia on Day 1 of the Test match. However, the partnership between Steve Smith and Travis Head spoiled India’s plans and didn’t let any wicket fall for the rest of the day.

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to bowl first. The Indian bowlers got a dream start as Mohammed Siraj sent Usman Khawaja for a duck at the score of just 2 runs in 3.4 overs. After that, David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne took the innings further by adding 69 runs for the second wicket. Warner got out in the 22nd over after scoring 43 runs off 60 balls hitting eight boundaries.

A couple of overs later, Labuschagne was also dismissed by Mohammed Shami after scoring 26 runs off 62 balls with three boundaries. After that, Steve Smith and Travis Head took charge of the innings and put up a partnership of 285 runs for the fourth wicket.

Head became the first batter to score a hundred in the WTC final as he got out after scoring 163 runs off 174 balls hitting 25 fours and a maximum. On the other hand, Smith went on to score his 31st Test hundred as he got out after scoring 121 runs off 268 hitting 19 boundaries. With this, Australia have scored 422 runs for the loss of 7 wickets  after the end of the first session of Day 2. For India, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami and Shardul Thakur scalped 2-2 wickets each.