
Has there been a better replacement for a first-team player (Josh Hazlewood here) in Test cricket than Scott Boland? The lanky Victorian almost sealed the deal for the Aussies on day five of the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) Final against India with his stunning spell. During the first hour of play, Boland dismissed Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja in the space of three balls to put India on the backfoot.
Boland, who got picked over regular seamer Hazlewood on precautionary grounds for this one-off Test, did wonders for his team by picking three wickets so far in the final innings at the Oval. After getting rid of dangerous Shubman Gill on Saturday, Boland took no time in sending the star pair of Kohli and Jadeja back to the hut.
Smartly setting up Kohli early on day five, Boland first bowled a couple of usual inswingers and then pitched one on the fifth stump knowing Kohli’s weakness of chasing that – which eventually happened, and as he edged it with the hard hands, it went straight to the slip cordon where Steve Smith plucked a stunning catch to send the former Indian captain packing.
There was utter silence in the ground as hopes of thousands of Indian fans shattered in front of their eyes.
Coming in next was star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. Boland came around the wicket to him, only to wrap him up in two balls. Jadeja left the first one but couldn’t stop himself from trying to put bat to ball on the second fullish delivery, resulting in him nicking one to the keeper Alex Carey.
Boland, who already looked threatening with his tight line and lengths, made all the difference across two innings.
Meanwhile, India was in a decent position at stumps on day four, with scorecard reading 164 for three, with 280 runs needed to win.
After making most of the lead in the second innings, Australian batters struggled to score freely but still stood ahead with each run scored. Declaring on 270 for eight, Australia gave India a daunting target of 444 – a total that has never been chased in Test history.
The Indian openers came up with an attacking approach but couldn’t continue for long as they lost Gill and Rohit inside 100 runs. Cheteshwar Pujara also departed early by playing a poor shot, with Indian team left with Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane to build a partnership.
WATCH WION LIVE HERE: