Pat Cummiatters and the top two ranked ICC Test batsman – bailed Australia out of early trouble with with an 82(202) runs stand, India would have happily taken the 177 Australia eventually managed.
Siraj, Shami roar first before Ravindra Jadeja steals the show
Amid all the talk of the “doctored” pitch tailored to help the Indian spinners against the Australian left-handers, it was the fast bowlers pair of Siraj and Shami who made the first noise in the morning. Siraj had Khawaja lbw in the second over of the game and Shami bowled Warner in the third.
After that, though, Labuschagne and Smith fought hard against the Indian bowlers, with the latter even attacking Axar Patel for 3 fours in an over, and even Ashwin strayed for a few balls which were put away. The pair led Australia to lunch at 76/2.
Jadeja, who had bowled slightly on the shorter length than ideal, was quick to bowl full in the second session and enjoyed big rewards: Labuschagne stumped out while on the front foot before an arm ball breached Steve Smith’s defences. In between, Matt Renshaw, on his return to India, bagged a golden duck through Jadeja. Alex Carey and Peter Handscomb reached 30 runs but the pair of Ashwin-Jadeja became too much to overcome.
Rohit Sharma hit half-century as Cummins blow cold
In reply, Cummins was, to not be rude, poor with his lines and lengths. He went full on the stumps of Rohit Sharma, who reminded Cummins how good Indian batters are on the pads in home conditions, as Sharma took 3 fours off the first three balls, and raced to his half-century. Cummins leaked 27 runs in his 4 overs.
KL Rahul was steady as usual and looked good to remain unbeaten on the day before spooning a catch back to debutant off-spinner Todd Murphy for his maiden Test wicket. R Ashwin came in as the nightwatchman.
India are 77/1, trailing by 100 runs, at stumps on Day 1. India would want to bat big in their first innings and take a massive lead, for batting and chasing anything over 150 in the 4th innings will be really difficult.
