On another gloomy, cold day and without Usman Khawaja crossing over a tuff 15 minutes, a tired Jasprit Bumrah was able to send him walking just before stumps on the play of the opening day of the fifth Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test at Sydney Cricket Ground.
It turned out to be an entertaining day of Test cricket, especially for the Australian seamer Scott Boland, who took 4-31 as Australia bowled India out for a meager 185. Mitchell Starc stood tall at 3-49 while skipper Pat Cummins chipped in with two scalps as the Australian 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 was given 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 started off Australia's innings in style dancing down the pitch to hit the first ball from Jasprit Bumrah towards the mid-wicket boundary for four.
But on the last 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 some cheers at the end of a tough day.
Earlier, on a cloudy morning, India omitted captain Rohit Sharma, with Bumrah taking over the reins. Starc and Cummins got some steep bounce on the green SCG pitch, which did show signs of being on the slower side. KL Rahul initially showed good judgement to balls outside the off-stump, but fell for four off 14 balls after chipping a half-volley on the off-stump to square leg off Starc.
Boland brought one back at his fourth ball for India when he managed to nib one away that he was able to get outside edge of bat from Jaiswal, safely caught by third slip debutante Beau Webster of the opener, with 10 from 26 deliveries.
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 seemed that India would go through the first session unscathed, Gill danced down the pitch to Nathan Lyon in the last over before lunch, but could only nick him behind to slip, and fell for 20 off 64 balls.
The post-lunch session did not start on a good note for India as Boland got to seam away sharply Kohli jabbed at the delivery on a fifth-sixth stump line to give a catch to Webster in the slips and fall for 17 off 69 balls.
Star as well picked up his pace and gave Pant a bruise on his bicep, apart from hitting him on the helmet, leaving the left-handed batter circumspect. Starc's pace was too hot to handle for Jadeja as he looked to duck his rapid bouncers.
Pant danced down the pitch after cutting Starc past backward point for four and smacked Webster over the sightscreen for six, taking in another body blow while doing so. Jadeja got his first boundary of the match by driving Lyon past non-striker for four, after he was dropped by the off-spinner at five against Webster.
Pant rocked back to cut Lyon in the gap between backward point and cover point to seal off a slow scoring session for India. Post-tea break, Pant tried to paddle Boland, but top-edged straight to mid-on and fall for 40. One brought two as Nitish Kumar Reddy drove Boland's wide short one straight to slip.
Jadeja attempted to revive the innings with two more boundaries, before being caught plumb lbw by Starc for 22. Washington Sundar scored three boundaries in his 14 off 30 balls before getting bounced out by Cummins. According to Wilson, snicko detected a little spike while the ball brushed past the glove.
Though Bumrah hung around by hitting three fours and a six in his 17-ball 22, the highest score by an Indian skipper in the ongoing series, Australia wrapped up the innings as Starc had Prasidh Krishna heaving straight to the deep fielder, while Cummins got the Indian captain holing out in the same fashion to end another sorry batting show by the visitors' on a dramatic day of Test cricket.
Brief Scores: India 185/10 in 72.2 overs (Rishabh Pant 40, Ravindra Jadeja 26; Scott Boland 4-31, Mitchell Starc 3-49) lead Australia 9/1 in three overs (Sam Konstas 7 not out; Jasprit Bumrah 1-7) by 176 runs
Read also| 5th Test: Skipper Bumrah Chooses to Bat After India Wins Toss Against Australia
Read also| Gambhir Stresses Honesty and Confidentiality in Dressing Room Debates
