Australia accuse India of intimidating Konstas in Sydney Test

The fifth Test between Australia and India at the SCG has taken another turn, with Australian coach Andrew McDonald accusing the visitors of intimidating Sam Konstas on day one.

McDonald spoke to media after play on Saturday, expressing his dissatisfaction with the way India celebrated the wicket of Usman Khawaja the day before.

“Clearly, the way India celebrated that was quite intimidating,” McDonald said.

“My conversation with him was around whether he’s okay.

“It’s clearly within the laws of the game, the rules and regulations.

“There’s been no charges laid, but to have an opposition swarm the non-striker like that, we’ve got a duty of care to our player to make sure he’s okay and in a headspace to go out there and perform.”

Australia were faced three overs at the end of day one, with Konstas getting into a heated exchange with Jasprit Bumrah over Khawaja’s attempts to slow down play.

When Khawaja nicked out to Bumrah two balls later, the fast bowler walked towards Konstas with notable aggression, as did several other Indian fielders.

“It’s clear that’s acceptable because there was no fines or punishments, so I’ll leave that up to the ICC – Andy Pycroft being the match referee – and the umpires out there,” McDonald continued.

“If they thought it was satisfactory then I suppose that’s the benchmark we are playing towards.”

Konstas went on to make 23 runs on Saturday, with Australia falling four runs short of India’s first innings score of 185.

India then made 6/141 over the remainder of day two’s play, courtesy of a 33-ball 61 by Rishabh Pant.

However, the visitors remain underdogs to win the Test across cricket betting sites ahead of day three beginning.

Top bookmakers have Australia at $1.36 to win, while India pay $3.25 to upset the home side and level the series.

Sports news