Boxing Day Test 2024: Australia vs India fourth men’s cricket Test, day two – live updates
Key events
103rd over: Australia 399-6 (Smith 106, Cummins 48) With runs flowing fast, India introduce spin. No boundaries from this over but Ravi Jadeja gets bounced for five singles as Australia take a breather. The Smith-Cummins partnership is now a century stand – 100 runs from 128 balls. It is quickly taking this Test away from India.
102nd over: Australia 394-6 (Smith 103, Cummins 46) Siraj, smarting from Smith’s century, delivers a wide on straight-up and gets crashed for FOUR by Cummins. A couple of singles exchanged, one a leg bye, before Cummins goes again… that’s even better! Again it’s wide and full from Siraj and Cummins leans back and carves it to the boundary. Australia are flying on day two and India are looking very flustered.
Century to Steve Smith! (Australia 379-6)
There it is! A second consecutive Test ton for Steve Smith and the 34th of his career – no less than 11 of them against India! Nice way to draw level with the great Sunil Gavaskar as Nitish strayed outside off and Smith brought down the hammer with a flash through covers. That hundred came from 165 balls and signals a man back in form. He raises his bat to the Australian changeroom to say: ‘Thanks… but there’s plenty more where that came from.’
100th over: Australia 371-6 (Smith 96, Cummins 36) As India bowl their 100th over of the innings, we have a crowd figure of 62,000 in to watch Smith move calmly to 99 with a tuck to deep square and a tap to deep point. Here we go…
As we pause for drinks ahead of the 100th over, there’s time to revisit a Boxing Day innings that had more than a few shades of Sam Konstas in it: Kim Hughes’ sparkling century against the pomp of the West Indies fast bowling cartel in 1981…
99th over: Australia 371-6 (Smith 96, Cummins 36) Siraj cannons one into Smith’s pads on ball one and has a shout, appealing to the umpire for once. Sharma shakes his head at the big quick to say no, I won’t be frittering our final review on that. It sounded like an inside edge and replays prove it. Smith guides one past mid-on to move to 95. Cummins takes another from the fourth and Smith paddles a single from the fifth.
99th over: Australia 368-6 (Smith 94, Cummins 35) Double bowling change for India as Nitish Kumar Reddy replaces Jasprit Bumrah. That’s another win for the home side to have sent Mr Tick-Tick-Bumh back into his box without a breakthrough this morning. Reddy only got five overs yesterday and starts with 0-10 today. A Smudge nudge to square leg makes it 0-11 and Cummins adds another with a cut over the infield. Smith’s single from the last takes him within one shot of a 34th Test century.
98th over: Australia 365-6 (Smith 92, Cummins 34) Akash Deep has been sent to the deep to mull over his 15-run over. Instead it’s Indian firebrand Mohammed Siraj back into the attack. He’s full on the first four, short on the fifth and Cummins leaves the last to make it a maiden.
97th over: Australia 365-6 (Smith 92, Cummins 34) This Smith-Cummins partnership has rocketed to 60, Australia have added 48 this morning and are charging to 400. And they’re even closer now as Smith swivels and swats Bumrah’s fifth ball over the fine leg fence for a hooked SIX. That takes Smudge into the nineties.
96th over: Australia 359-6 (Smith 86, Cummins 34) Run drought over! Smith clips Deep for four from the first, tucking it off his hip with ease. Now another two as Smith guides it through backward point. Now Cummins is in on the action, stepping back to uppercut over slips for FOUR. Cop that Mr Konstas! And now some style from the skipper as Deep drops short and is driven off the back foot through covers. Fifteen from the over!
95th over: Australia 344-6 (Smith 79, Cummins 26) Cummins taps a single from Bumrah to get Smith into the action. Although he’s batting almost a metre out of his crease, Smith hasn’t got on top of Bumrah yet. He takes a single to think it over, which leaves Cummins to cop another bouncer, this one whistling past his chin and causing Captain pat to Fosbury Flop out of its path.
94th over: Australia 342-6 (Smith 78, Cummins 25) Rowan Sweeney is back in touch asking what’s par on this wicket? The way Ricky Ponting is talking on the box, rhapsodising of the grass and the absence of cracks and crumble, it’s 450. That means Australia need 100+ from their final four wickets. And the runs have suddenly dried up as Akash Deep delivers another maiden.
93rd over: Australia 342-6 (Smith 78, Cummins 25) Finally a bouncer! Bumrah revs it up to 138kph and Cummins is immediately made to look awkward. He flinches at the next one too, a little rattled. India’s captain moves a leg gully into place to up the ante. It’s another Bumrah maiden but that one had genuine menace.
92nd over: Australia 342-6 (Smith 78, Cummins 25) Again Cummins gets easy runs, this time two from a back-foot push that beats gully. He then takes a single off a no-ball to give Smith a chance. Sunil Gavaskar reckons India haven’t bowled enough bouncers and he’s right: Australia’s runs this morning have come too freely. Cummins proves that point in style, stepping forward to Deep and driving him handsomely to the rope.
91st over: Australia 332-6 (Smith 78, Cummins 17) Bumrah beats Smith on the first! That was a statement ball. It got the batter jumping and a drew a rueful grin from the bowler. Bumrah’s grin just gets wider as he beats Smith on the final three. A masterful maiden.
90th over: Australia 332-6 (Smith 78, Cummins 17) Cummins continues to take easy singles and gift the strike to Smith. The Australian captain has 100+ runs for the series at an average of almost 20. Smith has 200+ thanks to that 101 in the third Test and adds another four to that tally, stepping down and driving Deep through the covers. Great shot! This partnership has now added 33 runs.
89th over: Australia 324-6 (Smith 74, Cummins 16) Now the key battle of the morning: Steve Smith v Jasprit Bumrah. India’s master quick yesterday added 3-75 to his 21 wickets for the series. Smith has taken guard two inches outside leg stump to allow his now-customary stride across the pegs. He watches the first four warily, then flinches at the last with a half-shot, edging along the ground and through slips for four.
88th over: Australia 320-6 (Smith 70, Cummins 15) Akash Deep will bowl the second over, probably to allow Bumrah to charge in from his preferred end. Deep went to stumps with 1-59 from his 19 wickets and he starts with a maiden today.
87th over: Australia 320-6 (Smith 70, Cummins 15) Great start for Australia. Smith taps an easy single to settle the nerves and Siraj strays on the second allowing Cummins pounces with a flash blade that drives it to the rope. Now Cummins works a legside ball off his hip and a misfield – the bane of India’s fielding yetserday – allows three runs. Eight from the first half-over! A Smith single makes it nine from the full six
Steve Smith is walking to the crease 123 runs short of the magical 10,000 Test runs milestone. Of course the first two men to achieve that feat are the men whose names adorns the trophy up for grabs in this series: the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Smith has his captain Pat Cummins at the other end and Mohammed Siraj warming up with the ball in hand. Here we go, folks…
Thankfully for Victorians under threat of bushfire, it’s a cooler day in Melbourne today – currently 18C and rising to 22C . We have cloud cover at the MCG and Ricky Ponting, having eyed off this pitch, predicting a perfect day for batting.
Will Steve Smith and Pat Cummins kick on this morning? Or will India’s batters – minus Shubman Gill who has been controversially dropped in favour of playing a second spinner in Washington Sundar – get the best of it on day two?
Players are warming up on the ground and action will soon be under way.
Photograph: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images
The Konstas blitzkrieg drew an extraordinary response from his cricket hero Virat Kohli who veered across three lanes of traffic to put the shoulder into the youngster.
Although Kohli tried to claim it as the teenager’s fault and Usman Khawaja played peacemaker, Kohli has been clipped 20% of his match fee – a small price to pay for an epic display of petulance. Konstas himself shrugged off the incident as “just cricket”…
Watch the Konstas highlights package with this as your soundtrack…
Here’s how local media saw the Konstas Kaos at the MCG…
For those who came in late, here’s how Geoff Lemon bottled the lightning of day one…
Preamble
Angus Fontaine
Greetings cricket fans! Welcome to day two of the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne.
Day one was a lot. Blast furnace heat across Victoria had wildfires raging across the state and sparked a batting inferno at the MCG as a cool 19-year-old opening batter from Sydney made his Test debut on cricket’s biggest stage, scorching his name into history and giving Australia the edge on day one of this crucial fourth Test.
Sam Konstas, a brash teenager with just a handful of first-class games behind him, lit up the MCG with a display of batting pyrotechnics that had even the great Sunil Gavaskar proclaiming: “we are witnessing the future of Test cricket.”
As Jack Snape captured yesterday, it was a triumph of the unorthodox. Ramp shots, reverse scoops, paddle slaps, murderous square cuts, slog sweeps. After playing and missing at five of his first six deliveries in Test cricket, Konstas went crazy as only callow youth can. It sparked a display of petulance from the King himself, as Virat Kohli initiated a midpitch spat after deliberately shoulder-charging the young Australian.
Slammin’ Sam’s innings lasted scarcely an hour and 65 balls but produced 60 of the most scintillating runs ever seen by a debut batter. Even the great Jasprit Bumrah, India’s weapon of mass destruction in this series, was battered out of the attack as Konstas bamboozled the Indian bowlers and gave Australia a crucial early ascendency.
Bumrah, who had not been hit for a six in 25 Tests across four years, was lifted into the grandstand twice inside an hour by Konstas. And yet, Bumrah returned later in the day to rip through Australia’s middle-order with three key wickets and put India back into the contest with Australians going to stumps at 311 for 6.
Day two should be another ripper. Play starts at 10.30am AEST so batten ‘em down and buckle ‘em up because it is GAME ON in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
