IND vs AUS: Ravindra Jadeja picks his career-best figures in second innings against Australia in Delhi

Ravindra Jadeja can do no wrong, at least in home conditions. The player of the match in the Nagpur Test, Jadeja only got better in his second Test after returning from an injury layoff that kept him out for five months. Coming to bowl on the back of a three-wicket haul in the first innings, Jadeja wreaked havoc in the first session on day three of the second Test by picking up figures of seven for 43 – his career-best in Tests. Alongside his partner and ace India bowler Ravichandran Ashwin, the pair picked nine wickets among themselves inside one session and put India in the winning position.

To begin with, Jadeja first picked up struggling Usman Khawaja early before stumps on day two. Come day three, the left-armer clean bowled world number one batter Marnus Labuschagne on 35. Two balls later, he got the prized wicket of Australia’s first-inning hero with the bat, Peter Handscomb on zero. On the next delivery, he clean bowled captain Pat Cummins, who tried sweeping him. With this, Jadeja was the on the hat-trick ball, which was well denied by Nathan Lyon.

It was about time before the star all-rounder dismissed keeper-batter Alex Carey bowled on seven while Lyon and last batter Matt Kuhnemann got out on scores on eight and zero, respectively to Jadeja only. Seven wickets to him in the second innings helped India wrap up Australia on 113 despite them starting the day one 61 for one. With this, India only required 115 runs to win the Delhi Test.

KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma came on with the motive to end this Test sooner but Lyon had different plans. He dismissed KL Rahul on one off three balls and troubled Cheteshwar Pujara as well – who is also playing his 100th Test. While Rohit did hit two boundaries, India still look from comfortable in chasing this small target. At lunch, India was 14 for one and need another 101 more runs to claim the victory.