Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Usman Khawaja was unable to make it through a tough 15 minutes and was dismissed by Jasprit Bumrah before stumps arrived on Day One’s play of the fifth Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground on January 3.
Seamer Scott Boland shone with his 4-31 as Australia bowled out India for a paltry 185. Apart from him, Mitchell Starc took 3-49 while skipper Pat Cummins chipped in with two scalps as Australia’s fast bowlers took nine wickets in an accurate and deadly bowling performance.
For India, the decision to bat first on a grassy and challenging pitch backfired, as they suffered another first-innings failure to be dismissed for a score of below 200 for the fifth time in the ongoing series. Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant showed remarkable restraint to top-score with 40, including taking multiple blows on his body.
After being bowled out, India got three overs to bowl at Australia, and the hosts’ ended day one at 9/1 in three overs and trail the visitors’ by 176 runs. Young Sam Konstas began Australia’s innings in style by dancing down the pitch to hit the first ball from Jasprit Bumrah towards mid-wicket boundary for four.
But on the final ball of the day, Bumrah struck as he found the outside edge of Usman Khawaja’s bat and the catch was taken by second slip to dismiss the batter for two. Interestingly, a pumped-up Bumrah gave a send-off instead to Konstas, with the Indian fielders joining in, as the visitors’ had something to cheer about at the end of a tough day.
Boland struck with his fourth ball in India’s eighth over when he got to nip one away and extracted an outside edge of Jaiswal’s bat, which was safely caught by debutant Beau Webster at third slip, as the opener fell for 10 off 26 balls.
The seamer almost got his second wicket on the bounce when he found Virat Kohli’s outside edge, and Steve Smith dived across to catch to his right at second slip. But it seemed like Smith had got his fingers underneath the ball and flicked the grass while scooping the ball to Marnus Labuschagne at gully, something that TV umpire Joel Wilson spotted while ruling Kohli not out.
From there, Kohli, batting with his stance covering middle and off stumps, looked solid in defence, even as Shubman Gill got a great start by collecting a four each off Cummins and Starc. Just when it felt that India would end the first session unscathed, Gill danced down the pitch against Nathan Lyon in the final over before lunch, but he managed to only nick him behind to slip, and fall for 20 off 64 balls.
