cricket

Updated: Dec 17, 2018 13:34 IST

KL Rahul was already under a lot of pressure ahead of the four-match Test series against Australia and his performance in the first two games is not helping matters at the moment.

With the exception of the second innings in the first Test, the India opener has struggled to perform and on Day 4 of the second Test in Perth, the right-hander equalled Sunil Gavaskar’s unwanted record when he was dismissed by Mitchell Starc for a duck.

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Rahul has now been dismissed ‘bowled’ seven times out of his last 11 Test innings. With the dismissal in the second innings, he equalled Gavaskar’s record - Indian openers dismissed ‘bowled’ most times in both the innings of a Test (three times). While for Gavaskar, it spaned over 125 Test matches, for Rahul, it has been in only 33 Tests.

An out-of-form Rahul played on to his stumps off Mitchell Starc on the fourth ball of the innings to be dismissed for a duck and was soon followed by the in-form Pujara, who gloved a sharp short ball from Josh Hazlewood to be caught behind. Chasing 287, the onus was on Virat Kohli and Murali Vijay to steady the India innings.

Earlier, Mohammed Shami returned a career-best 6-56 to dismiss Australia for 243 in the second innings.

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Resuming on 190-4 after lunch, Australia lost 4-6 off 23 balls with Shami taking 3-5 in eight balls.

It was an outstandiung effort by Shami in his 38th test after going wicketless in Australia’s 326 all out in the first innings. It was only the fourth time he has taken five wickets in an innings.