Indian opening batters Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul scripted a rare record in the second inning of the Perth test by making a 200-run partnership for the first wicket.
The 201 runs stand between the duo makes them enter the list of “Highest opening stands for India in SENA countries”. Notably, this partnership also marks India’s first 200 runs opening stand in the 21st century.
In SENA countries, India’s last 200-plus opening stand came in 1979 when Sunil Gavaskar and Chetan Chauhan scored 213 against England in the Oval. It is also worth mentioning, that KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal became the first Indian opening pair to score 200 runs in a Test innings in Australia.
Highest opening stands for India in SENA countries:
- 213 – Sunil Gavaskar, Chetan Chauhan vs ENG, The Oval, 1979
- 203 – Vijay Merchant, Mushtaq Ali vs ENG, Manchester, 1936
- 201 – Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul vs AUS, Perth (Optus), 2024
- 191 – Sunil Gavaskar, Kris Srikkanth vs AUS, Sydney, 1986
- 165 – Sunil Gavaskar, Chetan Chauhan vs AUS, Melbourne, 1981
Speaking of the match, India won the toss and elected to bat first. In the absence of Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul opened the inning and were expected to lay a strong foundation for the team India.
The Australian bowlers, on the other hand, kick-started their bowling inning in an aggressive style and loaded pressure on the Indian batters. Mitchell Starc in the third over of the innings dismissed Jaiswal for eight ball duck.
Following his dismissal, Indian batters struggled to face the Australian pace attack and started to lose wickets at regular intervals. The much-expected Indina star batter Virat Kohli too lost his wicket to Hazlewood after scoring just five off 12 balls.
Debutant Nitish Reddy scored the team’s highest individual score by scoring 41 off 59 balls. India ended their first inning with a score of 150 and was forced to depend on their bowlers.
As expected, Indian bowlers delivered the needed and bundled the hosts for 104 where Indian spearhead Jasprit Bumrah emerged as the leading wicket-taker for India. Indian stand-in captain Bumrah bagged his 11th fifer during the process.
Harshit Rana on his behalf bagged three wickets while Siraj bagged a couple of wickets during India’s bowling inning.
With a lead of 46 runs, Indian batters Jaiswal and KL Rahul made their way to open the second inning. Unlike the first inning, the duo made a steady start and went on to add 200 runs without losing a wicket.
During this process, Yashasvi Jaiswal secured his fourth test hundred and equals Sachin Tendulkar’s record of scoring most test hundreds(3) in a calendar year before turning 23(India).
Finally, Mitchell Starc made the much-needed breakthrough by dismissing KL Rahul for 77 runs while India scored 201 runs in the first session of Day 3. Before drinks, India scored 220 runs for 1 wicket loss and made a lead of 266 runs with nine wickets in hand.
