The question after the end of the first innings of the fifth Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) was which ground would get the first statue of the new sensational pacer of Australia, Scott Boland, who has taken his graph to a new stage since making his later announcement in international cricket.
Scott Boland got his first chance to be part of the series during the second day-night pink-ball affair at the Adelaide Oval before returning to the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), where he enjoyed six wickets across two innings to earn a victory of 184 runs.
The surface of Sydney was grassy, and under grey skies, it was incredibly hard for the batters to settle in the middle and score runs. It was the perfect condition to bowl for the Boland-kind of bowlers, who love to pick their spots and keep on bowling on the handkerchief length for the entire day.
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Scott Boland hardly bowled a bad ball in his spell of 20 overs, where he gave away just 31 runs besides getting eight maidens and enjoying four wickets. The incredible accuracy and mastery of the length for the new ball, as well as the old one, was so hard to handle for the touring batters. The seam movement of the pacer was enough to keep asking the questions.
Scott Boland leads Australia’s charge to dominate India on a rare green Sydney track
The Victorian pacer located the perfect length on his first over to find the outside edge of Yashasvi Jaiswal’s bat into the hands of the slip fielder for ten. KL Rahul had already been dismissed for four, having chipped the half-volley from Mitchell Starc straight to the square leg region in the fifth over.
Scott Boland almost had Virat Kohli on the very first ball, but the latter survived by the skin of his teeth thanks to the slip fielding controversial catch. The former Indian captain left the next 17 balls before the pacer came back to get him nicked into the hands of debutant Beau Webster at the third slip. It was also the fourth time for the batter to be dismissed against the particular bowler.
“We have got pretty set plans on how we want to bowl to him. He sort of feels like he leaves a lot, and then he wants to play the ball once he gets in. So once he gets in, we just want to switch our line a little bit to the fifth stump, and it’s working at the moment.” The 35-year-old expressed at the end of the first innings.
Scott Boland now has picked up 50 wickets in 24 innings at an average of under 20 and a strike rate of nearly 40 with the help of one five-wicket haul at the best bowling figure of 6/7 in an innings.
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Rishabh Pant was batting in a different approach for the entire day, as he looked to go in his shell, managing 40 runs in 98 deliveries. That approach came on the back of his dismissals of being caught at the boundary line in both innings at the MCG. He didn’t show much aggression in the first innings of SCG before Boland had the last laugh against him.
The centurion from the first innings of the last Test was caught into the hands of Steve Smith at the second slip in the bowling of Scott Boland, as India later were bundled out for 185 in their first innings.