AUS vs IND | Twitter laughs as David embarrassingly succumbs on second ball to SKY and Varun's mind games

Gantavya Adukia

ByGantavya Adukia,SportsCafe Editor

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At the elite levels of sport, success is much dependent on mental factors as dexterity, a prime example of which presented itself in the second T20I between Australia and India in Melbourne. Tim David was immediately placed on the burner with men around the lid which culminated in a quick dismissal.

Varun Chakravarthy scalped Tim David in the second T20I between Australia and India at the MCG

Australia hardly broke a sweat in their comprehensive win over India at Melbourne Cricket Ground to go 1-0 up in the five-match series. The foundation was laid by Josh Hazlewood's four-over new-ball burst that brought him three wickets for just 13 runs as Abhishek Sharma and Harshit Rana were the only Indian batters to manage double digits while their team folded out for 125. An early onslaught by Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head thereafter effectively killed the game within the powerplay, the former ending with 46 off just 26 deliveries to leave his team needing just 39 in 12 overs. The hosts used the opportunity to promote Tim David up the order and give him some time out in the middle but the tourists had the quality spin pairing of Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav operating, making a game of cat and mouse inevitable.

As a headgear-less David lined up to face his first ball off Varun in the ninth over, skipper Suryakumar Yadav stationed a man at slip and instructed a helmet to be brought on for Tilak Varma to be placed at short leg. David quietly watched the players moving around and hung back in his crease to stroke back a length delivery past Varun for an easy single, before breaking into a cunning smirk as he let the mind games sink in. However, the feeling of triumph did not last long given as soon as David returned on strike, the same field followed but this time there was no survival. Realizing he was being baited into playing a big stroke, David chose to play a classic front foot defence, only for Varun to drag his length back and spin the ball just enough for it to catch the top-inside of the bat and spring back for the simplest of catches.

Albeit the Indian players celebrated mutedly given the game's contexts, Twitterati showed no such subtleties.

WOW!

Gone

Quick ones

C & B

Another one

VC Strikes

Too good

Yet again

Unreal

OUT!

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