IND vs AUS : On the opening day of the series opener in Perth, Australia’s fast bowlers kept up their twisted tactics, removing India for just 150 in the 50th over of the innings. Mitchell Marsh and Pat Cummins both claimed two wickets in the post-lunch session to end India’s batting efforts, while Josh Hazlewood added the wickets of Jasprit Bumrah and Harshit Rana to the two he had already taken in the morning phase.
Dhruv Jurel drove steadily on both the front and rear foot as India got the practice off to a strong start. But Marsh pulled him forward with a length ball that initially slipped off the outside edge and went to Marnus Labuschagne. Marsh subsequently claimed his second wicket of the session when Washington Sundar was undone by an additional amount of bounce, similar to that of Virat Kohli.
Day 1 in Perth was turning out to be one-way traffic, but Rishabh Pant resisted. During the morning session, Hazlewood’s excess bounce absorbed Kohli, while Yashasvi Jaiswal and Devdutt Padikkal were forced to nick away from the body. The third umpire ruled down a solid-looking KL Rahul for a caught-behind appeal towards the conclusion of the session. Rahul had performed well to play within the line of seaming deliveries. The replays indicated a spike in the snicko, but it occurred on a frame. Where the ball had barely passed the bat and his bat had struck his pad. So he left furious and shook his head.
IND vs AUS 1st Test
Pant, as usual, threw caution to the wind when he charged down on Cummins and got a strong outside edge that soared over the third man fence’s slip cordon. Even though it took him seven deliveries to score his first run, 21-year-old debutant Nitish Reddy was strong to begin. He looked confident against Lyon, playing a wristy drive through cover for his opening four, and he rode the bounce nicely against the quicks. Then he charged the spinner to pick the space between mid-off and cover. Nitish even gained access to open spaces on the field against Lyon by using the reverse sweep option.
The first part of the session was spent enjoying the rub of the green by Pant and Nitish. Pant ran backwards from mid-on and tried to collect a cross-batted hoick off Mitchell Starc. But Cummins was unable to hold onto it. In the meantime, Nitish managed to avoid Australia’s hesitancy over the review of a caught behind call. According to replays, the ball left Nitish’s gloves and went to Alex Carey.
But Cummins eventually made a breakthrough. After becoming accustomed to the Australian captain’s round-the-wicket approach, Pant even struck him for a standard flipped six over backward square leg, which caused him to topple over. At second slip, Cummins shifted to over the stumps and created an outside edge that went to Steve Smith. Harshit Rana got Hazelwood’s third wicket after McSweeney and Labuschagne’s outstanding work in the cordon. McSweeney dove and parried the ball in Labuschagne’s direction as it went low to his left at Gully. India was then eight down as Labuschagne seized it with one hand.
Nitish started to take more chances in pursuit of fast runs with Bumrah at his side. He hit Cummins for a six with an amazing upper cut. Bumrah himself pulled over the keeper’s head to score a six off Hazlewood. However, Hazlewood also managed to get him to edge one behind the stumps. To end the Indian innings, Cummins removed Nitish after he reached the 40s.
In summary:
India defeated Australia by 150 runs (Nitish Reddy 41, Rishabh Pant 38; Josh Hazlewood 4-29, Mitchell Marsh 2-12, Mitchell Marsh 2-14, Pat Cummins 2-67).
