NAGPUR: Ravindra Jadeja set himself up for a 5-wicket haul on his return to Test cricket after successful surgery and Ravichandran Ashwin said his 450th wicket as India reduced Australia to 174/8 at tea on the opening day of the first Test in Nagpuar on Thursday.
Australia chose to bat, and their struggles on a pitch that offered spin and occasionally allowed the ball to stay low were broken up by two half-century partnerships: an 82-run partnership between Marnus Labuschagne (49) and Steve Smith (37) for the third wicket, and a 53-run partnership between Peter Handscomb (29 batting) and Alex Carey for the sixth wicket (36). Despite the pitch being challenging to bat on, Labuschagne and Smith led Australia to 76/2 at lunch, demonstrating that runs could be scored on it.
In the fourth over following lunch, with Australia 76/2, Jadeja struck for India and ended the 82-run third-wicket stand between Marnu Labuschagne and Steve Smith. In order to dodge the bat, the ball spun away from the good length location after he lured Labuschagne out of his crease. The Australian hitter was cleanly stumped by Bharat, falling one run short of his fifty-run mark. When Matt Renshaw was caught plumb by Hadeja with a delivery that spun large and sailed past the edge to hit the front pad, Australia was down to 84/4. Australia reached its century in 40.3 overs.
And with 109 runs already scored, Australia had half of their team inside the pavilion when Jadeja took Steve Smith as his third victim of the afternoon session. Smith was struck out by Jadeja's exquisite pitch, which swirled slightly before straightening out to rattle the off-stump as the Australian hitter tried for a massive turn but absolutely missed it. As they built a 53-run partnership for the sixth wicket and accelerated the scoring while attacking the bowlers, Peter Handscomb and Alex Carey prevented India from securing its next victory.
Their partnership came in 63 balls, whereas Smith and Labuschagne's did so in 128 balls, making it completely different from that of the third wicket.
Carey, the more aggressive of the two, hit seven boundaries against Ashwin to claim his 450th Test cricket victim as the Australian wicketkeeper edged towards the stumps. In the 54th over, Australia stood at 162/6 after another delivery that stayed low. As they crawled to 174/8 in 60 overs at tea, Australia lost two quick wickets in the form of Pat Cummins (6), caught by Virat Kohli off Ashwin, and Todd Murphy (0), trapped lbw by Jadeja for his fourth wicket.
Prior to that, when Mohammad Shami completed an unremarkable first over, Siraj struck with the first ball he bowled from the North End, trapping Usman Khawaja leg before wicket with a delivery that stayed low and almost tore off his toe.
It was an outswinger pitched on a length that the left-hander moved in to catch and whacked him square in the front. Khawaja faced three deliveries before attempting one run. In the second over, Australia is 2/1. With an inswinger that just missed the edge and ricocheted off the pad into the off-stump, Shami struck in the following over to send Warner's off-stump spinning. Warner also scored one run, although it took five pitches. In a solid partnership, Smith and Labuschagne guided Australia past the 50-run threshold. The Indian bowlers put them through a lot of pressure, especially the spinners on a field with unpredictable bounce, where some deliveries skidded and jumped while others kept low. Although all three spinners were put to use in the morning session, none of the spinners were able to claim a wicket despite bowling excellently as they created the breakthrough. When the batter was on six runs and there was a sharp opportunity for Axar Patel to take the third wicket off Smith, Virat Kohli flubbed it to his right.
The partnership's half-century was reached in 128 balls despite the pair surviving quite a few unplayable deliveries with the ball. In the fourth over, Labuschagne hit Siraj for two fours: one off a half-volley and the other off a deliberate edge through the wicketkeeper along the ground. Siraj defeated him with an outswinger from well off the crease on the final ball of the over.
In the first session, he added five more boundaries, the best of which was a drive off Shami wide off mid-on. When an Axar Patel delivery skidded off the ground close to the good length point, Labuschagne just avoided being out of the game. Labuschagne was batting at 47 as Australia went to lunch at 76/2 in 32 overs, while Smith was at 19. The Australian team's left-handed batsmen were the focus of much discussion about the "doctored" pitch, which had a large dry area, therefore the hosts entered the match with three spinners: Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Axar Patel.
The hosts gave Suryakumar Yadav and wicketkeeper KS Bharat their first-ever Test caps in place of Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill. Todd Murphy, a spinner, made his debut for Australia, and Scott Boland, a pacer, replaced Josh Hazlewood, who was injured.
Brief scores: Australia 174/8 against India in 60 overs (at Tea on Day 1) (Marnus Labuschagne 49, Steve Smith 37, Alex Carey 36, Peter Handscomb batting 29; Ravindra Jadeja 4-45, Ashwin 2-41).
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