Virat Kohli‘s poor tour of Australia continued on Monday and his downfall came in a fashion that has been seen multiple times already. In the 27th over of India’s chase of 340 runs, Kohli threw his wicket away and India lost their third wicket at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
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In what has been the theme of the tour and quite obvious to the batter and the opposition bowlers, Kohli has gone chasing to deliveries outside the off-stump only to produce an edge which has been lapped up by the Australian team.
This time, Starc bowled a full delivery, angled across the right-handed Kohli who played away from his body in an attempt at pocketing runs with a drive. However he got a thick outside edge which flew to Usman Khawaja at first slip. The Aussie opener got low to his left to take the catch and reduce India to 33/3.
It is not the first time Kohli has been dismissed to a delivery outside-off. In the first innings at the MCG, he looked solid and patient to those balls. Yet, he ultimately fell to a delivery that was on the fifth-sixth stump line by Scott Boland.
Except a second-inning century at Perth, Kohli has had a poor tour Down Under considering his otherwise stellar record. His other scores in the four Tests have been 5, 7, 11, 3, 36 and 5 for an average of 11.66.
In the fourth Test, India’s grim batting was exposed once again with experienced Rohit Sharma and Kohli falling cheaply. Also falling before the Lunch break was KL Rahul for a duck. An unrelenting Pat Cummins took 2/10 off nine overs, removing Rohit and KL Rahul in quick succession.
Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal was 14 not out at the break after grinding for 83 balls, with India’s run rate reduced to a stagnant 1.26 by accurate Australian bowling.
India need a record fourth-innings Melbourne run chase of 340 to go 2-1 up in the series, after Australia posted 234 in their second innings.
They will more likely try to bat out the rest of the day to salvage a draw and keep the series locked at 1-1 going into Sydney’s final Test, which begins Friday.
