Nagpur ∙ ‘The pulse of the Indian pitches is in the spin’ – the lesson that the Australians had in mind before the first Test. They even trained on the spin pitch and made the ‘others’ of the Indian spinners bowl, but they forgot everything on the Nagpur pitch. The Aussies were bowled out for just 91 runs in the second innings in front of Punta Ravichandran Ashwin, who looked fierce like Chacko Mash in the movie Sphatikam. India won by an innings and 132 runs. Taking a 1-0 lead in the series, India also activated the possibility of the World Test Championship final. Second Test from 17th at Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi.
Scattered on the pitch
The Aussies lost in front of the Indian spinners in batting and bowling. Ravindra Jadeja who took 7 wickets in 2 innings in bowling and 70 runs in India’s first innings in batting is the player of the match. Ashwin took 5 wickets in the second innings and took 3 wickets in the first innings. Batting as a night watchman, he scored 23 runs. After captain Rohit Sharma (120), Akshar Patel (84), the top scorer in the Indian innings, also took a wicket in the second innings. All the three Indian spinners combined have the same number of runs till the first innings of the Aussies – 177!
Akshar Patel, who took the reins from Jadeja, led the Indian batting forward in the first session on the third day from 321 for 7. The Indian innings reached 400 with Mohammad Shami (37 off 47 balls) giving great support to Akshar.
Stumbled on the wicket
All 10 of Australia’s batsmen fell in just 32.3 overs on a pitch where India’s last four batsmen scored 79 runs in 25 overs on the third day. Ashwin, who shared the new ball with Shami, welcomed the visitors who entered the second innings with a deficit of 223 runs. Ashwin gave Aussies a bad signal by returning Aussie openers Usman Khawaja (5) and David Warner (10). India began to dream of victory as Jadeja returned Marnus Labuchane (17), who started well. Steve Smith (25) played from one end but beyond was a procession of wickets. Alex Carey (10) was the only one of the latter to see double figures. In both the innings, the Aussie batsmen made mistakes in facing the balls that came towards the stumps. 15 of India’s 20 wickets were lbw (10) and clean bold (5)!
Finger cream; Penalty to Jadeja
Indian star Ravindra Jadeja was fined after his all-round performance in the first cricket test. Jadeja was fined 25 percent of his match fee for applying cream on his finger while bowling. While bowling in the first innings, footage of Jadeja taking the cream from Siraj’s hand and applying it on his finger was released.
The ICC said in a statement that it is clear that Jadeja applied the cream on his finger for health reasons and that the player did not attempt to tamper with the ball. However, action was taken for using cream without the permission of the field umpire during the match.
Spinning Company of India
R.Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have played together so far in 38 home Test matches, Team India has lost only one. Both of them took 396 wickets in 38 Tests!
Six Shami!
Indian pacer Mohammad Shami surpassed Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh in number of sixes in Test cricket yesterday. With 3 sixes yesterday, Shami’s number of sixes in Tests reached 25. Virat Kohli (24) and Yuvraj Singh (22) were left behind.
Own Warner!
R. Ashwin proved again yesterday that David Warner is his favorite victim in Test cricket. Ashwin dismissed Warner 11 times in the 16 Test matches the two played against each other.
English Summary: How India beat Australia in first test?