Australia ahead on day 1 in Indore Test vs India after Matthew Kuhnemann’s 5-16

Austr
Image caption: Matthew Kuhnemann took his maiden five-for in Test cricket on Wednesday

The young Australian left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann took his sensational five wicket haul, returning with figures of 9-2-16-5 while the senior spinner Nathan Lyon took 3/35 from his 11.2 overs as Australia took control of the proceedings on first day of the third Test against India being played at the Holkar Stadium in Indore on Wednesday.

Despite India getting an early advantage in form of winning the toss and electing to bat, Australia were ahead at stumps on the first day by 47 runs as they reached 156/4 in reply to India’s small total of 109 all out, an innings which truly shocked the home team and its fans. 

While it is evident that India’s batting woes have continued in this Test series as only Rohit Sharma in the first innings of the Nagpur Test at being a specialist batsman to score a century, it was certainly embarrassing for the home team to be bowled out without any resistance in just 33.2 overs.

Plenty of Indian batsmen were guilty of taking an aggressive route on a pitch which was turning square and the odd ball was keeping low on the first day on Wednesday at the Holkar Stadium in Indore. Indian captain Rohit Sharma was stumped off Matthew Kuhnemann for 12 from 23 balls after dancing down the track to be beaten by the bounce and turn the left-arm spinner got off the surface.

Shubman Gill, who replaced the struggling KL Rahul, was caught by Steve Smith and the first slip for 21 from just 18 balls with three boundaries of the left-arm spinner, who also went on to claim the wickets of Shreyas Iyer (0), Ravichandran Ashwin (3) and Umesh Yadav (17).

Among the Indian batsmen, it was Virat Kohli who batted for the longest duration as a right-handed middle order batsmen faced 52 balls to score 22 runs with the help of two boundaries. His downfall was brought on by right-arm Australia spinner Todd Murphy, who beat him in pace and flight to hit him on the pads in front of the wickets.

At one stage it looked like India would not be able to cross the 100-run mark but some special hitting by Umesh Yadav towards the end of the innings, with the tailender scoring quick 17 runs from 13 balls with two sixes and a boundary, took them past the triple figure score.

The Indian all-round trio of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Akshar Patel all disappointed with the bat and the story remained more or less the same when it was the turn to bowl later in the day.

Despite Ravindra Jadeja taking all four wickets that Australia have lost so far in their first innings, the visitors were able to go past India’s first innings total and build on a healthy lead of 47 runs, which will be playing in the mind of the Indian players after their disappointing show with the bat on the first day.

For Australia, Usman Khawaja was the star with the left-handed opening batsman scoring 60 from 147 balls with four boundaries and added 96 runs with Marnus Labuschagne for the second wicket to set up a strong platform. 

The right-handed Marnus Labuschagne was dismissed for 31 from 91 balls while Australia captain for this match, Steve Smith, made 26 from 38 balls with the help of four boundaries before he was removed by Ravindra Jadeja.

At the stumps, it was a pair of Peter Handscomb and Cameron Green battling the Indian bowlers with Australia ahead in the match.

Comments

0