Something amazing happened in the Perth Test when Australia had to suffer a penalty of 98 runs. This penalty was imposed on the host team because of its own player Usman Khawaja. Due to this, a big record was also made in Perth. Obviously you must be wondering how and when this happened? This incident happened during India’s second innings. The 41st over was going on, when something happened on the field, after which not only a great record was created but also a penalty of 98 runs was imposed on Australia. Mitchell Starc was bowling at the time due to Usman Khawaja’s mistake which caused Australia to suffer this fate.
Usman Khawaja had dropped Yashasvi’s catch
That was Mitchell Starc’s 9th over in the second innings. On the 5th ball of that over by Starc, the ball hit the bat of Yashasvi Jaiswal and went towards Usman Khawaja. This was an easy catch for Usman Khawaja standing in the slip. But, he got dropped and this became a big mistake of Khawaja, the consequences of which were faced by the Australian team.
The partnership was 103 runs, when the catch was missed.
When Usman dropped the catch on Starc’s ball, Yashasvi Jaiswal was playing on 51 runs at that time. That is, when this incident happened he had just completed his half-century. Whereas 103 runs were added to India’s score board. Which was a partnership between Rahul and him. But, what happened after Usman dropped the catch?
Yashasvi added 98 more runs with Rahul, big record broken
After Usman Khawaja dropped the catch, Yashasvi Jaiswal along with KL Rahul made a record partnership. He added 98 more runs in 103 runs and made an opening partnership of 201 runs. This is the biggest opening partnership ever made by India in Australia in Tests. By doing this, Yashasvi and Rahul have broken a 38 year old record. The Indian record for the first opening partnership in Australia was in the name of Gavaskar and Srikkanth, which they made in the Sydney Test in 1986.
If this is not a kind of penalty then what?
If Usman Khawaja had not dropped Yashasvi’s catch, he would not have been able to write the story of Indian opening record in Australia. But, after getting a lease of life, Yashasvi along with Rahul added 98 more runs to the scoreboard. This is the reason why we are considering it as a penalty imposed by Usman Khawaja. Because the mistake was theirs.
