Mohammed Siraj’s act sparks ‘civil war’, nearly ‘breaks fingers’ of Ravindra Jadeja

If it was Travis Head and Steve Smith for Australia, Mohammed Siraj was the cynosure for India, at least in the first two sessions of Day 2 of the third Test in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, mostly due to his on-field antics. But while one of those helped India get a wicket, another sparked “civil war” with Ravindra Jadeja.

The second incident happened during one of Jadeja’s in the post-lunch session, when Head fended off a delivery towards the offside and took off for a quick single. Siraj sprinted over, collected the ball, and threw it recklessly towards the non-striker’s end, hoping to run out Head. But the ball instead went over the batter as Jadeja had to jump to collect it, and in a bid, hurt his fingers. The all-rounder was not at all happy with Siraj’s needless aggression on the field as he hurled a mouthful while shaking his hand in pain.

Although Jadeja survived an injury scare, former English cricketer Mark Nicholas, speaking on air, reckoned Siraj’s “enthusiasm” almost resulted in a civil war.

“There is a bit of civil war on the field as Siraj’s enthusiasm gets the better of him. He flung the ball so hard that it could have gone for four byes, but Jadeja gave him a right look. He must have said, ‘You almost broke my finger, pal. Take it easy’,” he said.

Travis Head dominates Indian attack

For the third time in four Test matches against India, Head smashed a century to help Australia dominate the second session on Day 2 in Brisbane. Australia, who were put under pressure by India in the morning session, with Jasprit Bumrah removing both openers before Nitish Reddy joined the party, scored 130 runs in the afternoon without the loss of a wicket.

Head, who had scored a match-winning 141 in Adelaide last week, rain riot against the Indian bowlers who ran out of ideas against him as he scored his ninth career Test century in 115 balls with 13 boundaries to his credit. He also forged an unbeaten 159-run stand for the fourth wicket alongside Steve Smith, who scored a half-century.